SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Tribune News Service) — A government watchdog for the Department of Defense found that Navy SEAL candidates frequently train in sewage-tainted waters where pollution from Tijuana regularly fouls San Diego’s South County shorelines, resulting in hundreds of cases of acute gastrointestinal illnesses.

The Feb. 7 report by the inspector general looked at how many times bacteria in the water exceeded state safety levels from February 2024 to September 2024 and whether the Naval Special Warfare Command, located on the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, relocated or rescheduled training to avoid exposure to the pollution.

Of 228 water quality tests conducted on samples taken from north and south beaches off the base, 76 percent of tests showed that bacteria surpassed safety levels, according to the DOD inspector general’s findings.

During that same seven-month period, the command relocated only 5 percent of 265 water training events, despite county beach postings directing the public to avoid contact with the polluted water. The command also disregarded those same beach closure advisories for three training events during a September 2023 Hell Week, the report added.

“As a result of Navy SEAL candidate exposure to contaminated water during training, candidates are presented with increased health risks and NAVSPECWARCOM’s training mission could be impacted,” Bryan Clark, assistant inspector general for Evaluations Programs, Combatant Commands, and Operations, said in the report.

Medical issues have been reported after training in polluted ocean water.

Clark said the Naval Special Warfare Command reported 1,168 cases of acute gastrointestinal illnesses, such as nausea, diarrhea and vomiting, among Navy SEAL and Special Warfare Combat crewman candidates at the Coronado base from January 2019 to May 2023. Nearly 40 percent of those cases were diagnosed within one week of exposure to ocean water that exceeded state limits.

Clark advised the command to develop a policy establishing “the roles and responsibilities for monitoring water quality and relocating, rescheduling, or canceling water training when bacteria levels exceed state health standards.” Additionally, he recommended that command officials be notified of water quality results and the decision to alter the training schedule.

The command agreed to implement the recommendations by the end of the year, but stated that as a federal entity, it “retains flexibility to determine SOP (standard operating procedures) independent from state requirements.”

Clark said the department would verify whether the recommendations were implemented.

The inspector general report comes after San Diego congressional leaders asked the Navy last January to release information such as the number of times training had been relocated because of beach closures, the costs of having to relocate or halt operations and how often personnel raised concerns about sickness or injuries.

Meredith Berger, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, responded in a letter to Rep. Scott Peters in April 2024. She said that from January 2022 through December 2023, 309 of 975 in-water trainings were relocated to San Diego Bay because of beach closures.

She added that while relocations outside of San Diego have not been necessary, the command was working on a plan to relocate to Camp Pendleton – about 60 miles north of the Coronado base. The potential relocation and cost depend on the availability of meal services, berthing and emergency facilities, Berger said.

Hell Week for SEALs and the Tour for Special Warfare Combat Crewmen, for example, cost about $675,000 combined. These trainings occur six times per year, she said.

Berger told Peters that the Navy’s top priority is “to provide a safe training environment” and that the service has had “increased focus and attention on impacts of transboundary pollution.”

She added that the Naval Special Warfare Center and the Naval Health Research Center partnered in November 2023 to determine connections between acute GI illness cases and in-water training events when bacteria is high.

The study has not yet been finalized, Capt. Jodie Cornell, the command’s public affairs officer, said Friday.

In a statement Friday, Peters said the DOD’s report “confirms what we have long known — the sewage is sickening our servicemembers and putting our national security at risk.”

“The recommendations in the report are wholly appropriate for the situation they are facing, but the situation itself is unacceptable,” he added. “We know that relief can’t come soon enough to our servicemembers and all the residents of Coronado and the South County, which is why I’m staying laser-focused on ensuring the money we secured in Congress gets into the ground as soon as possible and that we hold Mexico accountable to do its part.”

Reports of Tijuana sewage leaking into the San Diego region stretch back decades. The Mexican city’s plumbing has not kept pace with its rapid population growth. Years of underinvestment in treatment plants on both sides along the border have exacerbated pollution, but efforts to improve conditions are underway in both countries.

The International Boundary and Water Commission, which manages a treatment plant on the U.S. side serving as a backstop for Tijuana, said Thursday it is busy repairing the facility and ensuring Mexico complies with its half of infrastructure projects.

One critical task the federal agency managed to check off its list last month was bringing all five primary sedimentation tanks online. Since March 2023, the IBWC struggled to keep the tanks, which remove solids from wastewater, functional due to sediment buildup from south of the border.

A project to double the plant’s treatment capacity to 50 million gallons per day is expected to take about five years. But Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner, who heads the U.S. section of the IBWC, said she is figuring out whether the plant can treat up to 40 million gallons a day before the end of construction.

Mexico plans to bring a long-defunct treatment plant back online next month, which will treat 17 million gallons per day of raw sewage that has typically been discharged into the Pacific Ocean, affecting water quality conditions along South County beaches.

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