Affected by sewage gas near the Tijuana River? Here’s how to get one of 10,000 free air purifiers.

San Diego County air regulators have launched an effort to distribute 10,000 air purifiers to South County households affected by odors from the untreated sewage flows in the Tijuana River.

Residents in the City of San Diego communities of Otay Mesa West, San Ysidro, Egger Highlands, Nestor, Tijuana River Valley and Imperial Beach are eligible for one purifier per household with proof of residency, according to the San Diego Air Pollution Control District.

Due to limited resources, the agency says the program will prioritize households with children and residents over the age of 65. Residents can access the application for a purifier and up to two replacement filters here.

County regulators say the purifiers will help filter hydrogen sulfide odors, and are “an interim solution until the primary cause of the issue is resolved.”

“No one should have to breathe polluted air in their own home. This landmark effort to distribute air purifiers brings relief to the families hit hardest by the Tijuana River crisis,”San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, who is also on the board of the county Air Pollution Control District, said in a news release announcing the program.

The program follows the county’s distribution of hundreds of purifiers to residents using a raffle system last year. That distribution plan caused frustration among some community members who said many more purifiers were needed and receiving aid should not be left to chance.

For this rollout, air regulators say they will be reviewing applications.

“We will attempt to distribute the air purifiers as soon as possible, but we do ask for the public’s patience as we review applications,” said Paula Forbis, the county’s air pollution control officer.

Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, who is running for a vacant county Board of Supervisors seat, has estimated that at least 30,000 purifiers are needed to supply frontline communities.

Last summer the regulatory agency issued a nuisance violation to the International Boundary and Water Commission and its contractor Veolia for failing to properly maintain the Hollister Wastewater Pump Station, a facility responsible for transferring cross-border sewage to its treatment facility.

Thousands of residents complained to the agency.

It was the first time the regulator issued such a citation. The agency has since been pressuring the federal agency to fast track repairs to the failing infrastructure responsible for discharging billions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Tijuana River and the Pacific Ocean.

Later last year, a team of scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Texas at Austin and San Diego State University raised alarms about high levels of hydrogen sulfide emanating from hotspots throughout the river valley.

Since the citation, the federal facility announced additional issues at the plant and claimed responsibility for more sewage leaks. 

The latest spill came on January 26 after plant operators failed to close a collector gate at the border before a storm event. Ten-thousand gallons of sewage spilled into surrounding areas in the river valley after overloading the pump system according to an email from the IBWC.

“I don’t understand how they were not prepared to have the gates closed ahead of the projected rainstorm,” said Philip Musegaas, the executive director San Diego Coastkeeper.

“These chronic failures to manage polluted cross border flows highlight the urgent need for interim measures to protect public health, including distributing air filters to as many local residents as possible.”