California Funding to Heal Our Coast

Campaign Victory Update! Voter Proposition 4, the California Climate Bond, passed and it includes a $50 million allocation for border water infrastructure projects to address cross-boundary flows of sewage, trash and industrial waste.

The Surfrider Foundation has been working for decades to build awareness of the public health and environmental justice crisis occurring along the US/Mexico Border caused by transboundary pollution flowing through the Tijuana River Watershed and out into the Pacific Ocean.  After the successful settlement of a lawsuit that forced the International Water Boundary Commission to take steps to stop violating the Clean Water Act through needed wastewater infrastructure improvement projects, the Environmental Protection Agency managed a public process to vet these projects and selected a series of improvement projects, known as the Comprehensive Infrastructure Solution (CIS), to go through environmental review.  

Work is now underway to start construction on the CIS, but hundreds of millions of dollars are still needed to fully complete all included projects, like the Tijuana River Diversion Project, to provide relief to the families bearing the most burden from the ongoing pollution crisis.

While the Surfrider Foundation has been advocating for federal funding for the CIS, we also have been advocating for the State of California to contribute to the needed infrastructure solutions.  The CA State Legislature passed a budget item in 2022 that would have provided $50 million to pay for border water infrastructure improvement projects but this funding was vetoed by Governor Newsom. Since then we’ve been advocating for this critical state funding.

Late in the legislative session this year (2024) a $50 million earmark for Border Water Infrastructure was tacked onto the CA State Climate Bond after other dedicated bill & budget efforts failed to pass.