S1: Welcome to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Cross-border pollution between Tijuana and San Diego has seriously impacted the environment in the South Bay. And now there are more accurate tools to measure it. We hear more about what researchers have found.
S2: They found , you know , elements like ammonia , which is a byproduct of raw sewage on phosphorus , an ingredient in soaps and cleaners that are actually banned in the US. They found some metals that are like typically found in industrial plating industries.
S1: Plus , a new trolley extension opens in East County. We take a closer look and check in on the state of public transit in the region. Then we'll hear about some other stories from the week on the roundup. That's all ahead on KPBS roundtable. Cross-border pollution is one of the San Diego Tijuana region's most pressing issues. It's caused not only extended beach closures across much of the southern portion of the county. Its effects may also be hurting the health of local residents. One of the problem areas is the Tijuana River valley , where some activists and politicians are looking for new ways to clean up our border region in order to better the health of our environment , and , by extension , San Diegans. Mackenzie Ulmer has been covering the story for years now , and she joins me. She's the environment and energy reporter at Voice of San Diego. Mackenzie , welcome back to roundtable.
S2: Thanks for having. Me.
S1: Me. So earlier this week , the county Board of Supervisors , they delayed a decision on whether to ask the federal government to consider declaring the Tijuana River Valley a Superfund site. That's a designation saved for , you know , the most toxic parts of the nation.
S2: What ? We don't know , uh , where all the pollution is coming from because it is coming from another country. So it's a lot more difficult than trying to pinpoint a chemical plant domestically here in the United States , for instance , which is typical for Superfund.
S1:
S2: She's still pushing for the federal government to declare a state of emergency in the Tijuana River valley , which would trigger some more like quicker actions. But in that letter she also asked for the region to be cleared , a Superfund site and then Supervisor Tara Lawson River from the county Board of Supervisors. She also picked up on that , um , call and set it to take it to the full board for a vote this week. Um , and it definitely seemed to surprise , uh , Supervisor Nora Vargas , the chair of the board , whose district actually encompasses the majority of the Tijuana River valley. She had said , you know , I had just saw this across my desk a week ago. Um , and she had a lot of questions about what this would mean for the region. And ultimately , she proposed stalling , uh , any kind of vote or action on that until she could get some legal opinion. Um , some more feedback from the community on what this would mean. So she successfully got her Republican colleagues , uh , Supervisor Jim Desmond and Joel Anderson , to vote on her side. So she was successful in delaying , um , any kind of formal vote on a Superfund site.
S1:
S2: Um , that would be a 90 day delay. That's basically what her motion was that passed. Um , but Tara Lawson Remer , shortly after that meeting , issued a press release saying , well , we're going to we're going to pursue a Superfund site anyway without the blessing of the full county board. And that's true. You , any citizen , um , can pursue a Superfund designation from the EPA. It's sort of built that way so that it doesn't take like some kind of government action to get that kind of attention from the federal government. But it's still a very long process. And from what I've heard from EPA officials I've talked to , this situation probably doesn't exactly fit Superfund program , but we'll see.
S1:
S2: Terry Teri Lawson. Rumor did cite that there had been Superfund sites declared on the other border that we share with Canada. But in that case , there was a particular chemical plant that had been polluting the river and coming from British Columbia into the United States. And so they were able to sort of pinpoint , again , a specific polluter , which is what the program is set up to do. It's supposed to be there to go after the companies. And these companies are usually like bankrupt or maybe even , like not existing anymore. And so that's that's kind of like the whole reasoning behind Superfund. It's this program of last resort when there's no one else to try to , you know , to blame or to get help from the federal government's supposed to come in , identify who did the pollution , and then pursue all actions as possible to get funding to pay for the cleanup.
S1: So would come ostensibly with major federal funding. Is that sort of the idea there ? Yeah.
S2: And actually , it also does take the state to agree to kick in funding , so the state of California would have to pitch in like 10% of the cleanup costs. So it's not just like if the federal government agrees for it's a Superfund site. We're good to go. And , you know , we're saved and we're going to get a bunch of funding. The state also has to agree. And so far , we know that Governor Gavin Newsom has not responded to Mayor Paloma Aguirre and San Diego County's calls to declare the region an emergency , a public health crisis. So that would probably be another lift for getting this declared a Superfund site.
S1: So taking a step back now , can you give us the big picture here with the cross-border pollution along along the Tijuana River valley and at the beaches down in South Bay , when did the issue originate ? Because you've you've been on the story for ten years , it seems like.
S2: Right ? Yeah. I started reporting on this back in grad school around 2019. And , um , as far as I can tell , the history of this begins when we drew the Mexican US border where it is. It's a problem of topography. For one thing , we have , um , Tijuana sitting a lot of its communities high up on these coastal cliffs. And so any kind of , um , you know , water , sewage will naturally fall by gravity towards the United States , which is , uh , you know , San Diego begins with this estuary really low to the ground at sea level. But it's also an issue of just how fast the city of Tijuana has grown over time. There have been a lot of booms in the 1990s with the trade agreement between Mexico and the United States. There's a lot of there's a rise of industry in Tijuana and a lot of a big movement of workers in Tijuana who also took up residence there and sometimes built communities that weren't connected to the wastewater infrastructure in Tijuana. So that is part of the reason why we have a lot of this sewage coming from Tijuana and falling into the United States.
S1: So , as you mentioned there , this is not obviously a new issue , but when did it get worse or at least start to be taken more seriously as an environmental and now potentially public health problem for the region.
S2: I would say , seriously , depends on who you're talking to. And if you talk to Imperial Beach , you know , Mayor Serge Adina before the current mayor , Paloma Aguirre , has been , you know , screaming at the top of his lungs about this issue ever since he was a kid in Imperial Beach and then eventually became mayor. Um , in terms of the recent couple of years , I think it's really taken a turn because a confluence of different events. We've had some major , major , um , breaks in sewage mains in Tijuana that's caused a lot of raw sewage to be sent into the Tijuana River. And when it's in the river , it dumps right underneath Imperial Beach and causes , um , serious , uh , you know , contamination issues both on land and in the ocean. Um , and we've also just had , I think , new science and technology being deployed in Imperial Beach , in the region that are finally starting to give us a clearer picture of the , you know , the detail and proliferation of this contamination in both the water , the air and probably the soil. But I don't know if we've gotten that far yet.
S1:
S2: They're really just snapshot studies. Um , the BWC or the federal agency that runs wastewater issues between us and Mexico. They have a study that they released back in 2020. They found , you know , elements like ammonia , which is a byproduct of raw sewage , um , phosphorus and ingredient in soaps and cleaners that are actually banned in the US. They found some metals from that are like typically found in industrial plating industries. They found some chemicals that are that are added to plastics. So myriad things can be found in this cross-border pollution. Um , in terms of an ongoing like , in-depth study of , you know , how much is of these various pollutants that are actually toxic or more like chemical , aside from just an organic like sewage , what you might flush down your toilet ? I've been told the majority of this is probably the sewage , the stuff that you flushed on your toilet. It's more organic , but definitely we're finding some elements of like industrial waste in the Tijuana River. It's just we're not sure how bad it really is yet.
S1: You touched on this earlier and you've done some recent reporting on this , this sort of shift in the story of one being simply not about just polluted water , but also involving the air. Tell us about the significance of that.
S2: So a few years ago , we saw the County of San Diego deploy some new , more sensitive technology , uh , to test the water , the ocean , uh , you know , alongside the shores of Imperial Beach and Coronado. And it was it showed us just how dirty the water actually can be. It it could tell us the extent of the sewage that was actually in the water. It could count bacteria by its DNA. And so after that test started to become more regularly done on the beach , we saw a lot more beach closures. And that's kind of why we also have seen Imperial Beach , you know , be closed parts of it for over a thousand days. Um , in the past it used to be closed a lot , but we didn't have the technology to really say , you know , how persistent that pollution stuck around or how much was really in the water. And now we can really see the levels are a lot higher than we once thought. And then we had some researchers that have been interested in the interface of the ocean and the air. You know , when you walk along the shore and waves break , Whatever's in the water can transfer into the air via aerosols. So that's where the study of the air pollution began. And then these researchers decided to sort of take it internal to the estuary itself on land , and discovered some of these , as they've called hotspots , where there's a flow of the water river through the estuary that emits like a very strong odor , that they try to just deploy some instruments to see what does that odour indicate , like what are the things in the air causing that odour. And they found a couple of gases that they had some concerns about. And that's kind of the genesis of this air pollution concern that's now kind of driving the public health conversation.
S1: And as part of that conversation , the centers for Disease Control and Prevention will begin a health survey in South Bay starting next week.
S2: She's done an excellent job covering the community and the concerns there , and I think really drove the conversation lately about and probably , you know , why the CDC is taking a look at this. Um , but the CDC , the Federal Center for Disease Control , um , has agreed after the county asked them to to come down and do what's called a Casper survey. It's basically like a , a rapid health needs assessment. So they're going to come and do interviews with community members at Imperial Beach just for like a couple of days. But it's supposed to help capture what the greatest needs of the community are and help the local health officials prioritize what kind of things they need to do. So that's as far as I understand what the Caspir survey is supposed to create for us.
S1:
S2: Like we are a unique community exposed to a unique amount of pollutants. So our public health should be studied in depth. Um , and these epidemiological studies are very costly. They require a lot of surveying and testing and expertise. But this is kind of like a I understand it to be sort of like a mini first step of an epidemiological study. So again , it should come back with some sort of informative community feedback that will help potentially drive the conversation of like what actually needs to be done from like a federal perspective in this area.
S1: So you'd mentioned , you know , you've been covering the story since I think , 2019. I'm just curious how you approach , you know , covering the science behind what's happening , a very important issue , you know , bringing up issues of public health. And there's a lot of big questions there.
S2: I don't have a hard science background , but I do have a like I would say , I practice the art of science communication. Meaning , um , just calling up researchers who are working on these topics and trying to get them to explain in as layman terms as possible the kind of data that we are getting , if it's water quality , um , trying to understand how to best explain , like the difference between , um , an old way of testing the water , which was throwing water in a petri dish and growing bacteria that would reflect how much bacteria is in the water , and then basically they would just count and see , okay , we have five bacteria. That means the level is low in terms of sewage in the water. But now we have these other kinds of instruments that , um , can like rapidly whip up the water and locate the actual DNA and count that and get much more specific about , like if there were alive or dead DNA , all of it's going to show up and we're going to have a much like higher count of bacteria. And explaining that to the public In terms of this new fangled science , it can be difficult and I'm not sure all the time whether it's absolutely translating , but I find it fascinating myself. So I try to just portray what I find interesting about it and explain it in a way that makes sense to me. And so that's that's kind of my attempt in , in this whole situation , trying to explain it to the public. Yeah.
S1: And I think it comes through. And you mentioned also the work of Tammy Murga from the UT , who's also been contributing to this story and the , you know , community impacts there , as you mentioned. So in a kind of piece of good news on the story , last month , Imperial Beach , the shoreline opened up for the first time in over a thousand days. And , you know , it was kind of open to a lot of fanfare , and people were pretty happy.
S2: It was great. Um , but it closed very shortly thereafter. Um , again. And it really can be explained by another like confluence of , um , practical events , which is some fixes happened in Mexico on their side of the border that helped reduce the amount of sewage in the Tijuana River. And then so that means that we don't have sewage coming , you know , directly spewing underneath Imperial Beach. But there's another avenue for that sewage to get to Imperial Beach , which can lead to closures , especially in the summertime. That's the ocean. There's another plant in Mexico that's broken. And so Mexico , Tijuana will send sewage there , but it basically flows right off those sewage ponds and out into the ocean. So when we have swells that in the ocean that carry that sewage northward towards Imperial Beach , that will trigger those , you know , sensitive scientific tests to say the water is dirty , we should close the beach. And that's what happened. We had a change in the winds. It change , the swell , the ocean , which meant that sewage was being taken away from Imperial Beach. We didn't have the river flowing for a brief period of time. The beach reopened. The winds shifted again and the beach closed again. And so unfortunately , that's just kind of how this situation works.
S1: So finally , you know , we'll be keeping an eye , as I'm sure you're going to be watching where the Superfund push goes from here. You mentioned that vote's going to come back up.
S2: They are technically separate from the county , but they're supposed to be in charge of trying to monitor this stuff that the researchers found more closely and develop , like a system to warn people in Imperial Beach and Nestor and Coronado. Maybe even. I don't know if the air pollution gets up there , but they're supposed to develop some kind of system similar to what we have on SDB Infocom. That tells us about when the beaches are too dirty to enter the water , and just also having more data available to the public will tell the story a lot clearer. Like , how scary is this air pollution ? It's not clear right now. We don't have a full picture of that. And so that's kind of what I'm looking forward to understanding some more.
S1: Well , we appreciate you sharing more of your reporting now. And we'll be watching it into the future as some of these questions , you know , arise in the coming months. I've been speaking with McKenzie Elmer. She's the energy and environment reporter with the Voice of San Diego. McKenzie. Thanks.
S2: Thank you.
S1: When roundtable returns , we hear about the new copper line trolley extension in San Diego's East County , as well as the status of public transit overall for the region.
S3: When we're looking at the copper line , for example , I mean , ideally they would have finished double tracking the entire route so that they wouldn't have had to , you know , create this separate , uh , trolley line. But the system just needs more funding.
S1: That's ahead on round table. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. We've been discussing the implications of the San Diego and Tijuana cross-border sewage crisis. Now we turn our attention towards another topic that affects a wide range of people across the region. And that's public transit. San Diego's Metropolitan Transit System , or MTS , recently opened a new trolley route for the East County. It's called the Copper Line , which the agency says will help the effectiveness and reliability of the entire trolley system here today to talk more about this new trolley addition and public transit more broadly in the region is Andrew Bowen. He is the Metro reporter at KPBS. Andrew , welcome back to roundtable.
S3: Thanks very much. Glad to be here.
S1: Glad to have you. So tell us about the new copper line.
S3: But in reality , the copper line is just a reconfiguration and a rebranding , let's call it , of existing service on the existing tracks. So if you take the Green Line that it starts at 12th in Imperial Downtown , right by Petco Park , it goes around downtown , up to Old Town and then into Mission Valley and all the way out to Santee , or at least it used to. Now the Green Line terminates at El Cajon Transit Center , and then the Copper line sort of bridges that final gap from El Cajon to Santee. Now , why would they want to sequester this service between Santee and El Cajon to an individual route called the Copper Line ? It's because the very last stretch of these tracks leading into the station at Santee only have a single track. And what that can cause is a lot of delays. So let's say there's a trolley driver who , you know , needs a bathroom break , and they get into the Santee station a couple minutes late , then , you know , they're going to run off to the bathroom. They're going to come back , turn the train around and come go back towards downtown. Those delays can cascade throughout the entire trolley network. When you have this really , really long line of the Green Line , you know that that has this section where there's only a single track. So now the copper line is basically going to be going back and forth between Santee and El Cajon. And that sort of isolates this area with a single track just to that copper line , and it allows the Green Line to run only between El Cajon and 12th and Imperial , where there are two tracks the entire time. And it sort of limits the opportunities for delays and train cancellations , so this could allow for additional frequency in the future. They don't have the money for that right now , but it kind of cues MTS up to improve the service on the Green line and really the entire network by just kind of like reconfiguring these routes within the system that they already have.
S1: So kind of streamlines that side. So some East County residents have expressed concerns about the copper line change.
S3: So previously , you know , if you were riding from Santee all the way to downtown , it was a one seat ride. Now , anyone who's starting their trip in Santee and wants to go past El Cajon , has to make a transfer , and so that is an added inconvenience for some riders. I think it was like more than 80% of Greenline riders actually bored somewhere between downtown and El Cajon. So the majority of the ridership for the Green Line is probably going to see a benefit from this. And ultimately , I think the calculus that MTS staff and the board of directors made is , you know , we're helping more people than we're hurting here. And despite the fact that , you know , some folks now have to make a transfer when they didn't have to before , it's still going to create a better system for everybody.
S1: And so the new copper line that that opening comes just about three years since the Blue Line extension opened up. You know , that line connects UC San Diego to downtown San Diego , really all the way down to San Isidro. And I remember you covering that originally back during its opening in 2021.
S3: So you're having a lot of students who are now able to more easily access UCSD campus and maybe live in a more affordable part of town. I think where the blue line still is falling short is there are a couple of stations that are basically still just parking lots , and that's really not the kind of land use that creates the really high ridership numbers that you would see in a major city where every transit stop is surrounded by really dense housing and job centers and things like that. So , you know , there's still work to do , at least in terms of land use around these stations. But I would say , as far as I can tell , everybody seems to love this extended trolley line on the blue line. And it's also worth noting that the blue line has long been MTS most popular route , in part because it goes all the way to the border. So folks who are coming in from Tijuana can , you know , hop right onto the trolley system. And it's also it goes through National City and Chula Vista areas where you have a lot of folks who depend on the trolley. And so University City is a very large employment hub. So you have a lot of high rise office towers there. I don't know how many , you know , uh , white collar commuters are switching from cars to taking the trolley. But , you know , these projects are generational in nature. And , uh , and sometimes you create the service and the land use has to kind of follow in the footsteps. Ideally , we would have every station , you know , this like big urban center on day one of service. But you know , these things do take time.
S1: So one question that kind of comes up in these conversations around trains and trolley in the region is , is grade separation. Can you explain more what that is and kind of how it ties into this conversation about public transit in San Diego.
S3: Yeah , well , grade separation is really an issue that kind of deals with the conflict between , uh , trains and cars. So , uh , most of the Blue Line operates at grade , which means it's basically running on the tracks that are at the same level as the street. So anytime you hit an intersection , they have these arms that come down , they've got the clanging bells. And if you happen to get stuck behind the trolley that's passing by , it can be kind of annoying and , you know , can cause traffic and and it's also really not the safest kind of configuration there are , you know , new opportunities for conflict or collision between trains and cars. That doesn't happen often by any means. But , you know , ideally the situation would be a train that's operating on a track that is fully separated and and there's no real opportunity for a car to kind of come into conflict with that. So along the blue line , as I mentioned , it's it's a very popular route. and they want to increase the frequencies of the blue line to , you know , every 7.5 minutes , let's say , or even more. But when you have a lot of folks in that area driving and , you know , whereas previously those arms would come down and it would block you from passing the trolley tracks every 10 minutes or 12 minutes , now it's every five minutes or every seven minutes. And so they're trying to avoid that conflict , trying to create a system where , you know , public transit doesn't cause delays to other modes of travel. And so the system has a lot of work to do to create grade separation throughout the trolley network. These trains were built in the 80s and 90s. The tracks were. And so , you know , there's a lot of deferred maintenance and signal upgrades that they need. And so , you know , when we're looking at the copper line , for example , I mean , ideally they would have finished double tracking the entire route so that they wouldn't have had to , you know , create this separate , uh , trolley line. but the system just needs more funding to do everything that it wants to do and to create a system where it's truly seamless travel from A to B to C.
S1: So I mean , let's talk more about that.
S3: Still , you know , but during the pandemic , they were still needing to run the buses and the trolleys. I mean , there were nurses that were taking the bus to the hospital where they were treating Covid patients. Of course , you can't just leave them , you know , without any option to get to work. So they were keeping the service going as best they could while operating at a deficit. And there was some funding that came in from the federal government and the state , and that helped kind of keep it going for a while. But they've still got this structural deficit that they haven't overcome yet. There was funding that was approved by the state legislature to give transit agencies additional funding to kind of help continue their recovery post-Covid. But that funding then kind of got caught up in the budget negotiations. There was a big deficit in Sacramento that they had to close. And so the funding that MTS had been counting on to improve signal upgrades on the Orange Line , for example , and to create overnight bus service from downtown to the San Ysidro border crossing in the middle of the night , even which doesn't exist now. Those things are just getting pushed further and further back. So , you know , to say that we have a well funded transit system , it's just not true. The system has a lot of work to do to become a real world class transit system. And , you know , you can't just scrimp and save and and pinch pennies all the way there. You actually do need more funding.
S1: And that ties in to the election this year. Measured G. It's you know , ties into public transportation in this conversation we're having. You know , how does it work and how would the money raised from it be used ? Yeah.
S3: Measure G would increase the sales tax rate across all of San Diego County , not just the city by one half of 1%. So if you go out at a restaurant , um , after measure G has been approved and the bill is $100 , you would pay an extra $0.50 in sales tax. The measure is a citizens initiative , meaning it was put on the ballot by a campaign gathering signatures , and that means it only needs a simple majority to pass. Um , previously , taxes like this usually needed two thirds majority , but for reasons that we probably don't have time to go into , there was a change in law , and this only needs a majority to pass. More than half of the revenue generated by measure G would go towards public transit. Most of it would go towards capital projects , so that would include moving the train tracks off of the Del Mar Bluffs so that they don't have to keep on , you know , reinforcing the cliffs and and preventing those collapses that that canceled trains and caused delays. There is a plan for a high speed rail line from the border at San Ysidro up to Kearny Mesa. They also would use funding to improve the existing bus and trolley network. You know , added frequencies , maybe some bus only lanes that can increase the speed , keeping the system just in a state of good repair and also preventing fare increases , which can , you know , hit some low income folks pretty hard when they happen. So that's the expenditure plan. And ultimately I think San Diego will decide , you know , is this transit system worth our money ? You know , is it worth us spending more of our public dollars to improve ? And we'll see how it turns out on Election Day.
S1: And you mentioned there the low sand corridor that connects San Diego with Orange County , with the rest of Southern California. I believe it's the second busiest in the country. There are major problems there. Can you tell us kind of what's the latest with the change ? We know about the problems with lengthy closures due to coastal erosion and other problems with that line. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. The bluff collapses are probably the biggest issue that they're dealing with. And they've got a plan to tunnel underground and basically just move the tracks away from those cliffs so they're not falling off anymore. But there are other parts of the low sand corridor that are again , single tracked. And so that can cause delays throughout the entire rail line between Los Angeles. And it goes all the way to San Luis Obispo. Actually , you know , if a train is stuck on that single track portion and there's another train waiting to pass it in the opposite direction , it's just really slow. I mean , I took the train up to Los Angeles and back a couple weeks ago , and the return trip was delayed by something like three hours , and it can just be unbelievably frustrating. You know , when you're thinking like , I mean , when the train works , it is the best way to get to Los Angeles , and I will. I will say that until my dying day. And the beautiful. It's it's beautiful. You're going by the beaches , you know , and you're sitting in a seat relaxing. You can read or eat or walk around. Whereas if you're in a car , it's an incredibly stressful experience , especially with all the stop and go traffic. But yeah , that rail line has a lot of work to do. There have been some efforts at the state level also to kind of consolidate the management of this infrastructure. So you have San Diego County , Orange County , Los Angeles County , several counties above that , you know , and each area of the tracks are getting upgraded , sometimes one by one , but there's some effort to kind of have a more cohesive approach to this. You know , this is a long term improvement that needs to be made. It's not something that you can just do overnight , you know , and that can be frustrating for someone who really just wants the network now. But the the unfortunate reality is these things take time. They take money , and sometimes you just kind of have to wait it out and wait for things to get better.
S1: So kind of wrapping up here , I mean , obviously you'll be following what happens with measure G in the election this year , but what other questions or what are you following going forward ? You know , when it comes to public transit in the region.
S3: I would say that one of the biggest issues to keep watching is the development around these new trolley stations. So we've seen , you know , the city council pass some land use plans that allow for higher density around transit stops. That's been pretty limited in the area of Claremont , which is right next to the trolley , the Blue Line extension. I'd also like to see some better integration with the buses that the bus lines that feed into the trolley stations. A lot of those buses get stuck in traffic because there's no dedicated lane for the bus. The frequencies could be a lot better. So , you know , you could just leave your house and know that if you get to the stop , you're never going to have to wait more than 5 or 10 minutes for a bus , and that will take you to the trolley and lickety split time , you know , there's definitely a lot to be watching. But I would say , yeah , land use around the transit stops and creating a neighborhood that can really support high quality , frequent transit service is something that we still need to see in San Diego.
S1: Well , we appreciate you sharing more about this. I mean , it's such an issue tied to so many things , like you said , development and housing and all this , you know , of , of of how the city and the region works. It will be interesting to follow that going forward. Andrew Bowen is KPBS Metro reporter. He's also the voice behind the KPBS podcast Freeway Exit. Andrew , thanks so much for being here.
S3: My pleasure.
S1: When we come back , we hear about other stories from the week , including , of course , the San Diego Padres.
S4: This is the most I've known about the Padres. All my life. Actually , just having this job. Well , I've been to three games this year. That's compared to zero. Most years.
S1: That's ahead on round table. You're listening to KPBS roundtable , I'm Andrew Bracken. It's time now for our weekly roundup , where we talk about some other stories from the week. And joining me , as she often does , is Laura McCaffrey , KPBS web producer. Hey , Laura.
S4: Hey , Andrew.
S1:
S4: Org , and then also what they're googling in general around the county. And this week it's been Padres , Padres and the Padres.
S1: Yeah , and it makes sense. It has been quite the week. There have been a lot of ups and a lot of downs. We saw game three just a lot of excitement in that victory , followed by game four on Wednesday night , which Petco Park was a lot quieter.
S4: Yeah , 8 to 0. Sad.
S1: So I mean with that now it goes back to Dodger Stadium for Friday game five. This is the deciding game five. And I think a lot of the questions for today , um , are going to be where people watching the game , I think people are , you know , pretty activated for this and hopefully they can pull through. Where are you watching the game art ? I hope you're watching.
S4: Um , well , to be honest , I'll probably get the results later from my brother frantically texting me or friends posting on Instagram. Um , but a lot of , like , bars and restaurants , you know , all over town are going to be playing the game , I know. Um , it was a Puesto in Mission Hills. They were showing that , um , people were very excited because it was game three. But yeah. Where are you watching it or watching it at home ? It's still. TBD.
S1: TBD. But you're right. I mean , it's basically , I imagine , like any restaurant , any bars got to be showing it. Um , Petco park's also doing a watch party. I think it's like $5. Oh , okay. You know , pretty much anywhere you go. I think a lot of house parties are going to be happening , but I think it'll be one of those moments where just , I don't know , the town gets a little quieter and everybody just hones in. At least that's what I'm expecting. I mean , I the night of game three , I actually went to the front way of arena , the new arena in Oceanside.
S4: Where there was nippers and the nets were playing. Yep.
S1: Yep. Preseason NBA games. Not often the NBA returns to San Diego. Yeah. And while that was really exciting , it also took place during that Padres game. And you got some updates and a lot of Padres jerseys. So like your brother , you know , like , I think a lot of people are , you know , super on edge right now.
S4: Oh , yeah. Yeah , I guess this is the most I've known about the Padres all my life , actually , just having this job and , wow , I've been to three games this year. That's great. That's compared to zero most years.
S1: So yeah. So you're you're invested as well. Right.
S4: And somewhat invested.
S1: I mean , on a related story , there was I saw on Fox five San Diego , they , they featured um , and Legoland put together this model Lego model of Petco Park , which is pretty cool. Did you see it ? It's like 150,000 piece Legos. Um , you know , Legoland tends to do these kind of , like , tie ins , but it's. Petco is such a great park , and it's cool to see it tied into to , you know , the Lego connection to.
S4: It's it's kind of cool to see the city come together over anything really. There's something positive like sports. Absolutely.
S1: Absolutely. And that's one of those magical things. Like I , I grew up in Chicago , like in the 90s , and I still have these memories of when , you know , Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls , a couple of those key playoff games , you would just look on the streets and there'd be no but everybody would be , you know , watching the game. And it is you write this weirdly unifying thing. So. Mhm. Um , hopefully you know come the weekend there'll be another game. I think it would be Sunday night is when the National League Championship Series. Yes. So let's see how that turns out. Okay. What else is in the news for you.
S4: Well I received my ballot for this November's election. Did you get yours too ? Yeah.
S1: Yeah , I came this week , and I think I got , you know , the additional sort of like , information guy maybe a week ago or something like that. Yeah.
S4: I always find those guides kind of hard to understand. Yes , but I really like the KPBS Voter Hub.
S1: Tell us more. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. So this is something we've been doing every year. Me and the web team and all the reporters get involved as well. It is your guide to everything. On the election , we have explainers on candidates. We have explainers on measures. And there's a lot of sales tax measures as well. A lot , yes , there's a lot for every city. It seems like um , and we also have like pretty cool interactives. We have a candidate quiz that features Chula Vista and San Diego candidates , the two biggest cities in our county. We also have news stories , of course , national and local. Um , and we'll have results the day of and also with our new initiative , Public Matters , which is lots of stories about democracy and stuff. We'll have those videos on there too. Um , so there's a lot of cool stuff. I mean , I personally use the voter Hub over that guy the registrar sends out. Sorry.
S1: Well , like you said , there's there's a lot of measures. There's a lot of different things to sift through. And it's just , you know , nice to have it a few weeks in advance so you can kind of take your time through it. I mean , I usually take a little time before filling out my ballot and kind of sending it in.
S4: Yeah , same.
S1: But it is , you know , it's not too far out that the actual last day for voting is , you know. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. Less than a month. Yeah. Actually that's crazy. Yeah. And if you see anything that you do have a question on that the voter hub isn't explaining. Um , there is a place where you can submit your question , and our reporters might include it in their reporting. So KPBS. Org backslash voter hub. Great.
S1: Great. Well , I have a story also from the KPBS newsroom , um , KPBS Corey Suzuki , he covers the Imperial County as part of his his here at KPBS. Um , and he's been following the ongoing story of the lithium industry in Imperial County. Um , and they've been kind of putting a lot of investment into it. This Salton Sea has these lithium deposits , and lithium is really important for so much of the technology that we rely on the batteries. Right.
S4: Right.
S1: So , um , it's really interesting to see how that would impact that , that community. And I think they passed a lithium tax. And it was like the idea was to bring , you know , more benefit to the region. But the Imperial County , the Board of Supervisors there , they approved a plan. But it seems a little tricky as to what the revenue , how much of the revenue will actually go to the cities there and where that money will go. Did you did you check that out ? Yeah.
S4: It looks like the supervisors are laying claim to 60% of the revenue. Um , and then they'll divide most of the remaining dollars between cities based on population size instead of like , how close they will be to planned extraction sites. So maybe some cities that don't have a huge population and they have like more needs like bad roads or something. Infrastructure.
S1: Infrastructure. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. They will not see.
S1: As much money as they'd hoped. So there's still so many questions with this industry that , you know , comes with , you know , a lot of there's a lot of like aspirations behind it of what it could do. But I mean , I think you made the point that they haven't really started mining yet. Right ? It's still sort of like figuring it out. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. Yeah. So companies are still figuring out like how to do it , but there's been so much talk about like , oh , this is going to bring lots of jobs and money to the region. But I think a lot of that is still in question. And we just kind of have to see how it all pans out. But it seems like among residents in the Imperial County , the way the Board of Supervisors is planning to split up the funds , it's pretty controversial. So folks aren't happy about this ? Yeah.
S1: So that'll do it for The roundup this week , KPBS web producer Laura McCaffrey. Thanks so much for being here.
S4: Yeah , thanks for having me.
S1: That's our show for today. Thanks so much for listening. You can listen to KPBS roundtable anytime as a podcast. Roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon on Fridays again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show or ideas for a future one , you can email us at roundtable at pbs.org or leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtables. Technical producers this week were Brandon Truffaut and Rebecca Chacon. This show was produced by Jacob Ayer. Brooke Ruth is Roundtable's senior producer and I'm Andrew Bracken. Thanks again for listening and have a great weekend.
