The problem has waxed and waned for decades in the Tijuana River Valley area and in the affected coastline from Imperial Beach to points north. Houses and shacks in any open space and in hills around often hook themselves up to nearby power lines and poles to obtain free electricity. However few of them are connected to sewer lines with part of them lacking a good supply of water. Currently about 50 million gallons a day of untreated sewage-polluted water a day runs from a pipe that was ruptured in December 2018. The flow is slow at times though rarely stopped. A long term solution is slow in coming with the cost in hundreds of millions of dollars and no agreement between the US government and the Mexican government on who pays how much and when.
The census taken in 2010 said that 102,000 people lived in Flint Michigan. There are different estimates on how many people have left since then. Replacement pipelines and connections have been made slowly.
Now the focus shifts to Newark, New Jersey. There are 377,000 people in Newark. The same problem with high lead levels in the water has arisen. Tests have revealed that some smaller cities in New Jersey have the same problem. Rather than truckloads of water bottles the primary solution in Newark is use water filters. The company which manufactures Pur filters is happy. Imagine supplying hundreds of thousand of water filters to residents. A constant supply of water bottles is required until the problem is over. Filters must be replaced on a regular basis to prevent families from suffering the unintended consequences of elevated lead levels which no one possessed the foresight to anticipate. Two cities in two states have sever problems with the supply of water which has been taken for granted. Will it occur elsewhere?
There is no set timetable for the effects of climate change or their severity. A two to four foot rise in sea level over decades is considered the amount that civilization can adjust to. Greenland has enough ice so that if all of it melted the rise in sea level would be 20 feet. People in Miami Beach and elsewhere still repair and rebuild even after several storms cause flooding. Do people learn from history?
Deuel Woodward resides in Chula Vista.
