February 17, 2026
by Dr. Plastic Picker
It’s Thursday morning and I finally slept a good night’s sleep. I’d like to blame my previous days fatigue on the Tijuana Sewage Crisis, but I actually live further north so we don’t get the exposure to the hydrogen sulfide gases like our neighbors in Imperial Beach. I was previously tired because I was binge watching C-dramas. I usually watch K-dramas but they can’t make them fast enough so I’ve been watching more C-dramas. They have been really interesting and it’s fun to hear the words that sound similar to Vietnamese, because of the importation of Chinese words into Vietnamese over the last 1000 years.
But I’m thinking about the Tijuana Sewage Crisis today, and honestly I’m always thinking about the Tijuana Sewage Crisis even when I don’t want to think about the Tijuana Sewage Crisis. I need to thank the co-signatures to the epic letter addressed to the San Diego Air Pollution Control District that began our involvement 1.5 years ago. But we are all connected and I can always send that thank you email out later.
The reason I’m thinking about the Tijuana Sewage Crisis is that the amazing SDSU research team included community physicians as co-authors on the main paper. And the paper was AMAZING and so well written. It’s literally about the largest most important environmental disaster in the country. But it was rejected on it’s first submission by an editor that I actually know. In this circuitous journey of climate and health advocacy of mine, I’ve been lucky to be co-authors with several prominent environmental health pediatricians. And it was their name on the rejection email. I was SHOCKED since the paper was so well written! I even texted one of my other co-authors regarding my shock and she said that it happens, and the paper will be submitted to another journal.
I’m also always thinking about the Tijuana Sewage Crisis because there are thousands of people smelling the hydrogen sulfide and getting sick and they are always thinking about the Tijuana Sewage Crisis. Tomorrow is Saturday and it’s a precious weekend, but I have to be at the Imperial Beach Pier area at one of the ice cream shops (I need to bring my lactaid pills) to wear my costume/white coat and ask questions to someone running for Governor of California. I’m bringing along one of the UCSD medical students and one of the premedical students. There are a lot of people running for Governor, and this person was a freshman in college meeting his college girlfriend and now wife while I was a chief resident further down the Charles River at MGH. It’s funny how small the world is when you know details about people. We are all so connected in this world. And rivers whether they be the Charles River in Boston or the Tijuana River here in San Diego Country – connect us all. Water and rivers are vital to life.
But I have to think about other things as well. It’s my vacation week but I am home in San Diego for various reasons and will do some organizing. I need to get our March newsletter out because we have tons of updates to send. Need to email the UCSD students that were accepted into our 2nd UCSD Academic Internship Program to help them get their learning agreements in. I was only going to take 4 students, but we ended up accepting 5. One of the students seemed luke-warm about accepting the offer, but honestly we had 15 applicants for very few spots and it doesn’t really help me to take on more students. I’ll answer this particular student’s question but I’d rather there be just 4 students than 5. I really only offered the internship this year for one of the students who is the main organizer of the H3SD summit so that they have some time during the next quarter to help organize.
But I wanted to finish this blog post to let you know, that the Tijuana Sewage Pollution is always on my mind. But the coolest thing is that I got to be the inspiration for this beautiful art work profiled in a multi-media piece called Homesick. I think this depiction of the crisis and my part in it, is the most memorable part of this all. I really want to meet the artists someday.