The pump station at Hollister Street in San Diego County's South Bay failed this week, sending thousands of gallons of water and sewage into the nearby ocean.
“There's a pump station at Hollister Street, which is within the City of San Diego in District 8 that tends to cause problems because it becomes overwhelmed with sediment and trash carried by stormwater flows. Keyword stormwater flows, it hasn’t rained in months,” Mayor of Imperial Beach, Paloma Aguirre said.
The spill that occurred is estimated at 30,000 gallons of which 22,000 gallons were recovered, according to an Operations Manager with the International Boundary & Water Commission.
Hazmat teams called in amid toxic gas concerns in Imperial Beach over border sewage crisis
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
Due to the Hollister Street pump station failure, both Goats Canyon and Smugglers Gulch Canyon collectors are out of operation and experiencing trans-border flow.
The estimated flow at Smugglers Gulch and Goats Canyon is 202,000 gallons and 108,000 Gallons per day respectively, according to the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC).
The spill comes as local, state and national leaders try to get a handle on the ongoing problem.
“The solution is to eliminate the source. Not just to monitor and advise people but to fix it and take it out and in order for us to do that we need to declare a state of emergency so that we can divert the river and treat it,” Mayor Aguirre said.
South Bay residents and elected officials are concerned about the health impacts of sewage spilling into the area.
“That’s why we’ve had such high levels of hydrogen sulfide, extremely high levels of norovirus, pathogens and viruses, bacteria and parasites all being aerosolized and contaminating all of the south county communities,” Mayor Aguirre said.
There isn’t an exact timeframe for when the Hollister Street pump station will return to full service, according to the USIBWC.
WATCH NBC 7's special 'Toxic Tide: The sewage crisis at the border'
NBC 7 investigates the millions of gallons of raw sewage crossing from Tijuana into the United States every day, including how the crisis affects our health — and what must be done to end it.
