Tijuana Watershed
From SDCK Watershed Wiki
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The Tijuana River watershed encompasses a region of approximately 1,750 square miles on either side of the California – Baja California border, and in terms of water quality degradation is probably the most severely impacted watershed in San Diego County. Although only 27% of the watershed area is within California, the river discharges to the Tijuana Estuary and Pacific Ocean on the U.S. side of the international border. On the U.S. side of the border, the cities of Imperial Beach and San Diego, and San Diego County have portions of their jurisdictions within the watershed. The cities of Tijuana and Tecate are the most important urban centers on the Mexican side. The current population of the entire watershed is approximately one million people.
 | Watershed monitoring sites by San Diego Coastkeeper |
 | Formerly monitored sites by San Diego Coastkeeper |
 | Beach water monitoring sites by County DEH |
 | Beach water monitoring sites by wastewater agencies |
Coastkeeper monitoring sites
San Diego Coastkeeper currently conducts monthly water quality monitoring at 6 sites in the Tijuana watershed.
The Site codes and their locations are as follows:
TJN-010 : Tijuana River Estuary at the Visitor Center
TJN-020 : Tijuana River Estuary at Grove Avenue
TJN-030 : Oneonta Slough
TJN-040 : Saturn Boulevard
TJN-050 : Hollister Bridge
TJN-060 : Dairy Mart Bridge
Watershed information
Hydrologic areas
Hydrologic Unit: 911.11 - 911.85
Hydrologic Areas: Tijuana Valley 911.1 ; Potrero 911.2 ; Barrett Lake 911.3 ; Monument 911.4 ; Morena 911.5 ; Cottonwood 911.6 ; Cameron 911.7 ; Campo 911.8
Major Water Bodies: (i)Tijuana River (ii)Cottonwood Creek (iii)Tijuana Estuary
Impaired water bodies
CWA 303(d) List :
| Waterbody | Pollutant/Stressor |
|---|---|
| Tijuana River | Eutrophic, Indicator bacteria, Low Dissolved Oxygen, Pesticides, Solids, Synthetic organics, Trace elements, and Trash |
| Tijuana River Estuary | Eutrophic, Indicator bacteria, Lead, Low Dissolved Oxygen, Nickel, Pesticides, Thallium, Trash, Turbidity |
| Morena Reservoir | Color, Manganese, pH |
| Pine Valley Creek (Upper) | Enterococcus, Phosphorus, Turbidity |
| Barrett Lake | Color, Manganese, pH |
| Pacific Ocean Shoreline, Tijuana HU | Indicator Bacteria |
Watershed captains
Dan Murphy
Watershed studies and reports
- Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP) Report on the Tijuana Hydrologic Unit - 2007
- Toxicity Identification Evaluation of Wet and Dry Weather Runoff from the Tijuana River
- High Salt Marsh Pools in the Tijuana Estuary and their Potential Interactions with the Invasive Tamarisk
Watershed resources
- Tijuana River Watershed (TRW) Umbrella website
- Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve
- Binational Vision for the Tijuana River Watershed
- Regional Workbench Consortium (RWBC) Interactive Narrative Series
- Southwest Wetlands Interpretive Association (SWIA)
- Project Clean Water
- EPA Watershed page
Shifting Baselines in the Tijuana Tide
"Shifting Baselines in the Tijuana Tide" is a new 5-minute video to be released on Earth Day, April 22, 2009, from the Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project.It addresses the ocean conservation problems from the highly polluted Tijuana River.
"The Tijuana River is one of the worst sources of ocean pollution in North America," says writer/director of the film, Tyler Carlisle. "It's a problem that is currently caught up in a cross- border blame game as the large-scale problems continue to go unaddressed."
The video presentation is intended to help local conservation efforts communicate more effectively the current situation. Tijuana is one of the fastest growing cities in Baja California Norte, Mexico. Its growth has outpaced its ability to collect, treat and properly dispose (or reuse) its wastewater. Bi-national efforts by the US EPA and Mexico have improved the situation in the last decade, but an estimated 20 - 30% of residents in Tijuana still lack connection to sewer. The result is sewage contaminated runoff enters the Tijuana River. While dry weather flows (less than 25 million gallons/ day) in the Tijuana River are diverted for treatment in Mexico, the river diversion system cannot capture high volume flows following rainfall. This means sewage contaminated runoff enters the Tijuana Estuary and Pacific Ocean about 1 mile south of Imperial Beach following rainfall; sometimes continuing for several days after rains end. Imperial Beach pays the price for this problem with over 200 days a year of closed beaches due to sewage contamination. A study by San Diego State University correlated high levels of indicator bacteria (E. coli and Enterococci) measured in ocean waters at the Tijuana Rivermouth and I.B. pier following rainfall with Hepatitis A virus particles.
The video encourages viewers to join local efforts such as Pervious Pavers in an attempt to curb the overall pollution and runoff problem. It will be posted on multiple websites on Earth Day, along with a Spanish language version of the same piece.
The project is part of the on-going efforts of the Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project http://www.shiftingbaselines.org , which brings together ocean conservationists and filmmakers in an effort to communicate the problems to wider audiences. It is based at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and has more than 20 partner groups, including co-founding partners Scripps and Surfrider Foundation.
Interview with Dr.Jeff Crooks
