When students from across South Bay boarded buses and an airplane for Sacramento in January, they weren’t heading on a typical field trip.
They were going to lobby lawmakers — armed with personal stories, policy briefs, and a message they believe can no longer be ignored: the Tijuana River sewage crisis is a regional public health emergency, and California must step in.
The effort was driven by youth leaders connected through the Coronado High School “Stop the Sewage” Club, aka STS, and Youth Circle, a coalition of South Bay students working alongside the Tijuana River Coalition, all supported by StopTheSewage.org, a nonprofit that has helped elevate student voices on the issue.
“The students understood that this wasn’t just a Coronado problem,” said Laura Wilkinson Sinton, co-founder of StopTheSewage.org and a longtime community activist.
“It’s Imperial Beach, it’s Chula Vista, it’s National City, San Diego — it’s an entire region being deprived of safe beaches and dealing with real health impacts.”
Students from the Coronado High School Stop The Sewage Club, which has grown to more than 80 members, reached out to peers throughout South Bay, including students from Chula Vista Community Charter School.
Youth leaders Sean Wilbur and Anika Talavera helped organize the coalition, intentionally bringing together students from different cities to demonstrate that the crisis crosses jurisdictional lines.
“We are more powerful together. These kids wanted Sacramento to understand this isn’t one city complaining — it’s a region in a state of emergency,” she said.
For students who live closest to the affected waterways, the consequences are personal. According to Sinton, sewage pollution has led to recurring health issues, from respiratory problems to mental health impacts tied to the loss of outdoor recreation. Surf teams have dissolved. Junior Lifeguard programs operate without access to the ocean. Families with asthma, compromised immune systems, and young children face ongoing exposure to polluted air and water.
“It’s a way of life being taken from them,” Sinton said. “Their playgrounds are closed. Their training programs don’t function. And they’re watching government after government fail to act with urgency.”
In Sacramento, students focused their advocacy on SB 58, which would update air quality standards to better reflect public health risks, and AB 35, aimed at accelerating the release of already-approved funding for mitigation efforts. They broke into small groups, visited offices across daily, and delivered practiced 60-second personal stories — some describing ill grandparents, others mourning the loss of daily swims they once took for granted.
“These stories bring lawmakers to tears,” Sinton said. “They make the consequences of inaction impossible to ignore.”
While the students have pushed local, state, and federal agencies, they see Sacramento as critical.
“The federal government has proven unreliable,” Sinton said. “California is the fourth-largest economy in the world. It has the power — and the responsibility — to defend its residents.”
StopTheSewage.org has played a central role in organizing the effort, funding travel, coaching students in public policy, and teaching them that advocacy works. Many of the students are now registered or pre-registered voters, a point they emphasize in meetings.
“They know they have agency,” Sinton said. “And they’re going to use it.”
As several student leaders prepare to graduate, succession planning is already underway. Many are now considering careers in public policy.
“The kids are all right,” Sinton said. “And they’re not going away.”
