Mexico is slated to dump around 400 million gallons of sewage into the Tijuana River, which will mostly likely flow into the United States, a decades-old problem that has posed environmental repercussions for beaches and communities, officials said. 

Crews are slated to perform maintenance on the sewer system in Tijuana, which sits across the border from San Diego, which continues to be a dumping ground for Mexico’s pollution, San Diego Supervisor Jim Desmond told Fox News Digital.

“Every time there’s maintenance being done on their side of the border, instead of diverting it (sewage) to a treatment plant, it just goes into the river, the gullies and eventually ends up in the U.S., and into the ocean,” he said. 

“They put it (sewage) into the big drainage ditch called the Tijuana River that flows downhill, and unfortunately downhill is the United States,” he added. 

The border fence between Imperial Beach (Right), near San Ysidro, California, and Playas de Tijuana near the Mexican city of Tijuana.  (Getty Images)

“I think it’s really time for federal action,” he said. “There needs to be some type of repercussions for those actions. Unfortunately, their lack of an adequate sewage system is our problem. It’s not their problem.”

To convince Mexican officials to fix the problem, the U.S. could restrict the number of people coming across the border and visas, as well as other forms of leverage if beaches have to be closed, Desmond said. 

The Tijuana River flows right behind a shopping mall on the U.S. side of the border, which poses health risks for local residents, he said. In addition to beach closures, Navy SEALs and recruits train near the toxic runoff and children and some elderly residents on the U.S. side of the border have gotten sick because of the stench from the runoff, said Desmond. 

“We’ve got to have a better system here as opposed to just being a sewage collection for Tijuana,” he said.