﻿GLORIA PENNER (Host): A dispute over dredging in the Tijuana River valley heated up this week
after San Diego City workers began clearing debris on the river's flood control channel.
A local group tried to stop the clean-up efforts.
Here to tell us more about this is KPBS border reporter Amy Isackson.
So Amy, let's start with the City of San Diego.
They declared a state of emergency in the Tijuana River valley -- why?
AMY ISACKSON (Reporter): They did so that they could clean
out the valley's drainage channels before it rains.
Last winter, you'll remember the photos of horses that were swimming, some of them drowned.
It was just two inches of rain and parts of the valley were under water.
People's ranches flooded.
Livestock drowned as well.
And a rancher I talked to said the water -- it was amazing --
went from ankle deep to over his head in about half an hour.
And so City of San Diego officials have been working on this master plan so that they can go
into the river valley every year and dig out the drainage channels to make way for the runoff
that comes -- a lot from Tijuana -- to make its way out to the ocean.
But that master plan has been taking a long time to get through the process.
It's a hefty permitting process.
So more rain is predicted this winter with "El Niño" and the city just decided we need to get
in there and clean this out so we don't have a repeat of last year.
PENNER: It sounds like the city's being proactive,
so I'm wondering why a local group filed a lawsuit to stop the city.
Is it opposed to the dredging?
ISACKSON: They're not necessarily opposed to the dredging but they're opposed to the process.
They're opposed to the fact that the city declared a state of emergency which allowed them
to circumvent environmental laws to just get into the valley
and get the work done before the rain comes.
And the group contends that the potential flooding in the valley doesn't qualify
as an emergency because the city has known about it for a long time.
This has been a problem, it flooded massive floods in the early 90s.
The city went in in 2003 and dredged it out.
So this is something that has been on their radar screen.
And what was in court this week was that the group that's suing the city wanted
to get a temporary restraining order put on the dredging so that the city couldn't dredge.
But the judge decided that the potential risk to human life, animal life,
and the environment there outweighed the need for a restraining order.
PENNER: I'm assuming that the people that live
in the valley have a pretty strong opinion about this.
ISACKSON: They do.
You know, they want to stand on dry ground this winter, so they were relieved
that the judge did not go along with the restraining order.
When I was down there last week when the city started the dredging, one of the ranchers said
to me you just can't believe the relief
that I feel right now seeing these tractors in here doing this work.
PENNER: I've been down there in the past and sometimes you can actually see sewage
in that area, and now there's this new border fence that's just south
of the area that we're talking about.
Does that have any impact on the flooding?
ISACKSON: It could have enormous impact, and they believe that it did have impact last year.
Just to remind people, the federal government came in and waived all laws for that matter.
PENNER: That's right.
ISACKSON: Along the border here in San Diego, border wide, to get this fence built.
And in San Diego was this massive project where they brought millions of cubic yards of dirt
into Smuggler's Gulch, filled in the canyon to build roads
and fencing and lighting on top of it.
Now even though they waived environmental laws, federal officials promised
that they would do what they could to protect the estuary which lies basically at the foot
of the fence as well, as well as the valley, and to control erosion.
But they really haven't kept that promise as far as we can tell
because looking at that berm, it's bare.
Apparently they've seeded it twice, but they didn't water the seeds so nothing has grown.
And those plants would act as erosion control.
PENNER: Ok.
So before I let you go, Amy, just a quick update.
You did a story for us about kids taping drugs to their bodies
and then smuggling the drugs across the border.
You went down to take a look at some of the schools
where the customs enforcement officers were visiting.
How did the students react to having those officers there?
ISACKSON: The students didn't react a whole lot until the immigration
and customs enforcement officials said you have to ask us questions.
And then they kind of piked up and started asking questions,
and they wanted to know specifically how do agents know that a kid is carrying drugs
on himself, on his body, and also if they offer any kind of rewards for information
that could lead to either the recruiters or students who are smuggling the drugs.
PENNER: Well we'll keep up with that story as well.
Thank you very much, Amy Isackson.
ISACKSON: Thank you.