Sewage pollution plagues schools in this California beach town

Written by Deborah Brennan, CalMatters

Fallon Espinoza and his 9-year-old son Alan Gonzalez at Bayside Elementary School in Imperial Beach on March 19, 2026. Gonzalez recently developed a rash after taking a field trip near his school. Photo by Zoe Myers for CalMatters

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Fog rolled in over the Tijuana Estuary in Imperial Beach last week, with hydrogen sulfide bubbling from the polluted Tijuana River and a pungent odor like rotten eggs in the air.

Virginia Castellanos, a school nurse at Bayside STEAM Academy near the river’s mouth, worried that the stench would give her students headaches, upset stomachs and difficulty breathing. She had other pressing concerns. Her own 7-year-old daughter has asthma, which flares up when pollution spikes.

“I’ve been having headaches and nausea all week,” Castellanos said. “The smell was so bad. I was already expecting my daughter to get sick, but sure enough, in the last few days she started showing symptoms and said, ‘Mom, I need an inhaler.’

Air pollution monitoring data later that day, Thursday, March 19, showed hydrogen sulfide levels at 500 parts per billion, more than 15 times California’s standard of 30 parts per billion. News reports say last week’s high temperatures and the flow of sewage across the border from faulty pumps at Tijuana’s sewage plant are contributing to the stench.

Castellanos had to leave work early the day before to take her daughter home, but was scheduled to finish work again Thursday to take her daughter to the doctor. The risks went beyond the asthma attack itself. Previously, the patient’s breathing difficulties progressed to pneumonia, and he remained ill for several weeks.

“If she can smell it again, I can tell you she’s going to get sick,” Castellanos said.

Virginia Castellanos, a nurse at Bayside Elementary School, in Imperial Beach on March 19, 2026. Castellanos is concerned about the health risks students and community members face from contamination of the nearby Tijuana River. Photo by Zoe Myers for CalMatters

The symptoms Castellanos is seeing in her students and families are common in residents of Imperial Beach and other areas south of San Diego affected by Tijuana River pollution.

When sewage system failures and spills send raw sewage into Mexico’s rivers, the health effects are felt across borders. Residents of Imperial Beach report symptoms such as asthma, migraines, rashes, nausea, eye irritation, dizziness and brain fog when the unpleasant smell of hydrogen sulfide wafts from the water.

“Patients are telling us,” said Dr. Kimberly Dixon, a physician who runs South Bay Urgent Care. “They come in and say, ‘The air is terrible, I want to use my inhaler more. The air is terrible, my head hurts.’

Odors often keep children indoors, away from parks and beaches. At school, children are forced to stay in the classroom or schoolyard, sometimes feeling unwell and returning home. The coastal environment that has drawn many families to seaside communities is becoming dangerous.

“We love working here, living here and having our kids go to school close to home, but it’s harmful,” said Bethany Case, an Imperial Beach resident, Surfrider volunteer and mother of two teenage sons. “We live in this beach community, but we don’t live the beach life.”

March 19, 2026, in the hallways and playground at Bayside Elementary School near the San Diego Bayfront in Imperial Beach. Zoe Myers Photography for CalMatters

Parents are trying to cope with the effects of pollution by stocking up on inhalers, using air purifiers and limiting outdoor activities. But they wonder if the exposure puts children at risk for more serious health problems later in life.

“They smell this air and are exposed to it every day,” Castellanos said. “What damage is happening to their lungs? What damage is happening to their bodies, their eyes, their noses? We don’t know what will happen in the future. What health effects will happen to these children?

Excursion and rash

For 9-year-old Alan Gonzalez, trouble began after a class visit to the estuary.

The salt marsh is Bayside Academy’s backyard. It’s a wildlife paradise, with herons, ducks and other shorebirds walking through ponds dotted with aquatic plants. Western fence lizards sunbathe on the sidewalk and cottontail rabbits scamper through the grass along the wetland.

Alan and his classmates uprooted non-native flowers and planted native plants on a recent nature walk, said his mother, Fallon Espinoza. He was uncomfortable when he got home, but he is on the autism spectrum and has difficulty verbalizing his experiences.

On March 19, 2026, water from the surrounding estuary flows under the playground at Bayside Elementary School in Imperial Beach. Photo by Zoe Myers of CalMatters

“The next day he was very upset and irritable,” she told him, and she said her whole body was itchy. “Then I got tested and found that I had a rash all over my body.”

Espinoza called Alan’s doctor, who diagnosed an allergic reaction and prescribed Benadryl and topical lotion.

A week later, Alan was still suffering. He scratched himself to the point of hurting himself. Espinoza had to hug him to keep his hands still.

“My mom was threatening me to go to the doctor, so I didn’t have itching for a while,” Alan said.

Espinoza eventually took her son to see a doctor, who gave him a new diagnosis and gave him antibiotics.

“He said he’s seen other kids with this type of rash, and usually it’s because they went to the beach and were exposed to germs,” ​​she said. “It’s been foggy lately, so this could actually be airborne bacteria. Yes, we’re saying it could be aerosolized.”

Fallon Espinoza points out where her son Alan Gonzalez developed a rash after a field trip near Bayside Elementary School in Imperial Beach on March 19, 2026. Photography: Zoe Myers, CalMatters

Even after the rash subsided, Alan developed new fears about the natural environment near his school and home. Espinoza wanted to include him in a Saturday nature program where children explore the estuary and learn about habitat and wildlife.

“He doesn’t want to do that anymore because he’s afraid of the reaction.”

Health impact on students

The Tijuana River has faced complex challenges since the United States and Mexico began jointly managing the river’s flow more than 80 years ago. Sewer systems on both sides of the border kept pollution in check for decades, but in the early 2000s these facilities began to fail, polluting beaches and making swimmers and surfers sick. The problem escalated about 10 years ago after a major spill from an aging sewage treatment facility.

Parts of Imperial Beach’s shoreline have been closed for three years due to dangerous conditions, and in 2024 researchers revealed that the pollution can be transmitted through the air, confirming concerns from residents who complained of foul odors and mysterious illnesses.

March 19, 2026 at San Diego Bay near Bayside Elementary School in Imperial Beach. A student at the school developed a rash after a recent school trip along the coast of the bay. Photo by Zoe Myers for CalMatters

“I didn’t notice the smell until it got really bad three years ago,” Castellanos said. “I had no idea it was coming from the sewage.”

As the problem grew, the San Diego Health and Human Services Agency requested help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although no studies have comprehensively documented the impact on schools or students, two public health studies published in October 2024 examined how sewage pollution from the Tijuana River is impacting the lives of residents, including school-age children.

According to the CASPER study, or Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response, about 20 percent of households in the area reported that sewage contamination had disrupted school or work in the past month, and nearly 8 percent had disrupted child care.

Another study, called the ACE Study, or Chemical Exposure Assessment, reports even broader problems. Nearly two-thirds of residents surveyed said their children had missed work or day care due to symptoms believed to be related to the Tijuana River sewage crisis.

The South Bay Union School District uses monitoring data from the San Diego County Air Quality Control District to track pollution levels, Amy Cooper, executive assistant to the superintendent, said in an email to CalMatters. The air district operates monitoring equipment on district property near Berry Elementary School, the campus closest to the source of the contamination. The school also received more than $500,000 from the air district to purchase 199 air purifiers and a five-year supply of replacement filters.

If hydrogen sulfide levels exceed state standards, officials will call a “rainy day schedule,” keeping children in classrooms and running air purifiers in all indoor spaces, Cooper said. That’s what happened last Thursday, March 19, when a malfunctioning heating and pump caused a sewage smell.

Public school funding is based on average daily attendance, so if a student misses school due to a pollution-related illness, it can mean a loss of income. Cooper said the district tracks absences due to illness based on parent reports, but a search of the database in 2024 found no instances where “border sewage” or “sewage” were cited as the reason for an absence.

March 19, 2026 at Bayside Elementary School in Imperial Beach. Photo by Zoe Myers for CalMatters

“Because we cannot attribute specific absenteeism to the pollution crisis and there is no evidence that pollution is directly impacting the ADA, we cannot apply for ADA recovery as we would in the case of a natural disaster like a wildfire,” she wrote in an email to CalMatters.

Dr. Dixon said that even if students remain in class, symptoms caused by the odor of hydrogen sulfide can interfere with learning.

“During this time, kids are walking to school and when they get there, they’re feeling light-headed,” she says. “And they are expected to go to school and perform.”

Despite school measures to reduce exposure to pollution, parents are disappointed that their children are missing out on outdoor activities and adventure opportunities. Espinoza grew up in Imperial Beach and remembers childhood days spent by the water, where beach field trips were part of the school schedule. She wanted Alan to enjoy the same opportunity.

“As a parent, you want your children to experience all the beautiful things you experienced in your childhood,” she says. “You try to recreate that moment, but we can’t do that. We can’t take him to the bay because the bay is dirty and smelly.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.

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