SAN DIEGO — Community members in the South Bay rallied together on Friday morning at the Tijuana River in Imperial Beach. The group called for full and permanent funding of a conservation program that would preserve the river and the estuary, called “The Land and Water Conservation Fund.”
The program is responsible for protecting parks, wildlife refuges and recreational areas across the country including “The Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve.” The area has recently been in the news for being contaminated with sewage from Mexico.
Imperial Beach residents and community leaders stressed the importance of the issue to Congress, saying it needs to fully fund the program into the future. The Surfrider Foundation is also working to get HR 3195 passed. The bill would provide full and permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
The fund was established in 1965 and as of right now receives zero tax payer dollars, instead it gets its funding from a small portion of revenues from offshore oil and gas royalty payments.