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Floor Speech

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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Border Water Quality Restoration and Protection Act of 2025. This bill aims to reduce pollution along the U.S.-Mexico border and improve water quality throughout the Tijuana River and New River watersheds. It would designate the Environmental Protection Agency as the lead Agency to coordinate all Federal, State, Tribal, and local agencies to build and maintain needed infrastructure projects to address pollution along the border.

The Tijuana River watershed is in the midst of an environmental crisis, as stormwater flows from the upper watershed, originating in Tijuana, Mexico, and carries trash, sediment, and sewage into San Diego County.

Imperial County, like San Diego County, also faces serious impacts from the raw sewage, industrial waste, and trash that is carried by the New River from Mexicali, Mexico, through the city of Calexico before ultimately draining into the Salton Sea, where local families face exposure to dangerous pathogens.

Since 2019, more than 100 billion gallons of sewage have flowed across the U.S.-Mexico border into the Tijuana River Valley and neighboring communities, forcing long-lasting beach closures, including the closure of Imperial Beach for more than 1,200 days in a row.

Needless to say, this transboundary pollution crisis has disproportionately harmed underserved communities along San Diego's southern border for decades. U.S. military personnel, Border Patrol agents, and the local environment and economy have also suffered harmful impacts from waterborne and airborne transboundary sewage.

This bill will build upon the past several years of work I have undertaken alongside the late Senator Feinstein to bolster the resources of the Environmental Protection Agency and the International Boundary and Water Commission to repair, rehabilitate, and expand the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, including securing $300 million in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and more than $250 million through fiscal year 2025 appropriations legislation.

Establishing a program for the Tijuana and New Rivers is critical for the EPA to integrate and coordinate water quality restoration and protection activities by stakeholders across the region and will facilitate better coordination by Federal, State, Tribal, local, public, nonprofit, and other relevant stakeholders. California communities have suffered the impacts of transboundary sewage for too long, and this legislation will facilitate longawaited solutions to manage stormwater flows to reduce negative impacts to nearby communities and the regional economy and restore water quality and ecosystems throughout these watersheds.

I want to thank my colleagues, especially Senator Adam Schiff, Senator Cory Booker, and Congressman Juan Vargas, for reintroducing this bill with me. I hope my colleagues will join me to pass the Border Water Quality Restoration and Protection Act of 2025 to address this public health and environmental crisis. ______

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