Trash Booms

The Tijuana River Valley is a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance and a NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve. This coastal and marine ecosystem provides critical habitat for more than 300 species of birds, leopard sharks, bottlenose dolphins, gray whales, and California spiny lobster. It’s an important recreational, coastal, and economic resource for communities on both sides of the US-MEX border. Unfortunately, this coastal habitat and the health of border communities are under threat from toxic runoff including Baja California’s sewage, plastic debris, toxic runoff from maquiladoras and California-generated waste tires. Tijuana’s unregulated urban sprawl and limited trash collection, especially in the city’s steep canyons, produces a tsunami of trash and sediment that drains into the Tijuana River basin.

In order to stop the debris from spilling into the ocean, WILDCOAST, in January 2021, installed the first ever solid waste retention system (trash boom) in Mexico, located in Los Laureles Canyon, a tributary stream of the Tijuana River in Tijuana, B.C. Los Laureles canyon is home to about 65,000 residents who generate around 54,740 tons of solid waste per day. Less than two percent of that waste is collected by Tijuana’s Public Services Agency; the remaining is abandoned by residents on the banks of the tributary. Seasonal rains create a strong stream flow that carries that waste to the sea.

Contact: Jenny Parker