Goat Canyon | |
---|---|
Cañón de los Laureles [1] | |
Area | 4.6 sq mi (12 km2) [2] |
Geography | |
Location | Tijuana River Watershed [1] |
Population centers | Playas de Tijuana Tijuana River Valley, San Diego |
Borders on | Spooner's Mesa [3] Bunker Hill [3] |
Coordinates | 32°32′12″N117°05′58″W / 32.5367°N 117.0994°W |
Traversed by | Mexico–United States barrier [4] Mexican Federal Highway 1D [5] |
Goat Canyon (Spanish : Cañón de los Laureles) [6] also known as Cañón de los Laureles, begins in Tijuana, Mexico, and ends in the United States just north of the Mexico–U.S. border. The canyon is formed by Goat Canyon Creek, [7] which receives water and other runoff from areas south of the border. [1] Most of the canyon and its watershed lies within Baja California. [8]
The canyon originated during the Quaternary period; [9] it is bordered by Bunker Hill to its west and Spooner's Mesa to its east. [3] Part of the canyon contains coastal salt marshland and supports numerous sensitive and endangered species. [10] [11]
Human activity in and around the canyon pre-dates European colonization; [12] it was part of a route used by the Portolá expedition to San Diego Bay [13] and later formed part of the Missionary Road, which was abandoned in the late 19th century. [14] Farms existed in and around Goat Canyon until the area came under the control of the federal government of the United States. [15] Development south of the Tijuana-Ensenada scenic highway began in the late 20th century, [5] causing sewage to flow northward, a problem that persisted into the 21st century. [16]
Rocks that form the walls of Goat Canyon are relatively young, being no older than 10,000 years; they were formed in the Quaternary period. [9] The west wall of the canyon is about 5,000 m (16,000 ft) from the ocean. [17] The eastern wall of the canyon consists of a slope that leads to Spooner's Mesa, [18] which was named after a couple who had a homestead atop it. [19]
Numerous sensitive [Notes 1] and endangered plant species including the southern willow, mule fat, maritime succulent scrub varieties; and endangered animals including least Bell's vireo, Belding's savannah sparrow, and California gnatcatcher are found within Goat Canyon. [9] Within the northern portion of the canyon is an environment categorized as southern coastal salt marsh, which supports some of these species. [10]
The earliest-known site of human activity in Goat Canyon is a prehistoric campsite with a shell midden. [22] [23] In the area surrounding the canyon, evidence of human activity relating to the San Dieguito and La Jollan prehistoric cultures has been found. [15] [24] Within the canyon there is a San Dieguito-era quarry. [25] In 1769, the Portolá expedition's overland group, with which Junípero Serra was traveling, traversed Goat Canyon on their way to San Diego Bay. [13]
In the 1770s, Spaniards recorded that a Native American village, which they named "Milejo", was located at the mouth of the canyon. [15] [26] [27] In 1775, members of the Kumeyaay people living in the Tijuana River Valley, of which Goat Canyon forms the southwestern portion, attacked the Mission San Diego de Alcalá, which Serra had helped found several years previously. [13] During the attack, Friar Luis Jayme was murdered; [15] [28] he is considered to be the first Catholic martyr in Alta California. [29] During the period when the canyon was within Alta California, it was part of Rancho Tía Juana in 1829. [15] By 1833, the canyon was part of Rancho Melijo. [30]
Sometime after the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848 the land between Imperial Beach and Monument Mesa was owned by Elisha Babcock, who went on to develop Coronado. [31] The land was passed to James Crafton, one of the owners of the Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel, around the time of the Great Depression. [31] Prior to 1872, the original El Camino Real alignment ran north from Goat Canyon. [14] In the late 1880s, with the completion of the National City and Otay Railway between San Diego and Tijuana, a city was planned for the area north of the westernmost border monument but this plan was never implemented . [26] [32]
In the early 20th century, a homestead consisting of a house and a farm was built; the homestead was occupied until the 1980s when it was condemned by the city of San Diego. [33] It operated as a dairy farm and was owned by Harley E. Knox, who was a mayor of San Diego. [31] [34] It remained in the ownership of the Knox Family until at least 1981 but was out of their control due to government control beginning in 1970. [35] While the early 20th-century structures are no longer present, an excavation found evidence of a prehistoric camp on the site of the homestead. [33] The camp shows evidence that local materials had been processed into tools, as indicated by two alluvial deposits; [36] in 2002 it was recommended that this site be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. [37] [38] There was also a pig farm in the canyon; in the 1940s it was run by a Mexican family. [39] The father of the family died during the construction of a well at the farm. [39] The ruins of the home at the pig farm still existed in 2001. [39]
United States military activity near Goat Canyon began to the west with the surveying of a border marker. Activity then moved eastward to delineate the border established in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that traversed the canyon. [40] A marker, boundary monument #257, was placed atop the hill west of Goat Canyon. [41] Beginning in 1909, the Bureau of Animal Industry began to build a fence at the international border to inhibit the movement of tick-infested cattle that transmitted Texas Fever; [42] the fence was supplemented by patrols on horseback. [43] A temporary United States Army outpost was established during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) but a more significant Navy presence was established in the late 1020s with the creation of an airfield known as Border Field. [40] [44] [45] In 1943, on the south side of the base near the canyon, 35 buildings, including a trap house, were built close to Monument Road to support military operations at the airfield. [46]
In 1935, a survey of existing defenses led to planning for an expansion of coastal defenses for San Diego Bay. [47] In 1942, the United States Army base end stations were constructed on the hill west of the canyon; [47] [48] the group of bunkers was named "Mexican Border Fire Control Station". [48] [49] [50] In 1943, a fire control radar was installed at the Mexican Border Fire Control Station. [47] [51] The bunkers assisted targeting for Coastal Artillery batteries at Fort Rosecrans and Fort Emory. [48] In 1951, a plane crashed at the airfield, leading to the end of its use as an aerial gunnery range. [52] In 1953, the United States Army transferred control of the Mexican Border Fire Control Station to the United States Navy, which placed it under the control of the airfield. [48] Border Field airfield was itself under the control of Naval Auxiliary Air Station Imperial Beach. [47]
In 1961, Border Field and Goat Canyon were given to the Navy Electronics Laboratory. [44] Other users of the area were the California National Guard—which had launched pilot-less drones in the decade prior—and the Imperial Beach Police Department, which had a shooting range on the land. [53] At the time, a renewed effort to build a city in the area was made; these plans never materialized. [26] By 1971, the United States Navy transferred the site to the State of California, which opened Border Field State Park. [44] [48] Sometime between 1981 and 1998, a border road used by the United States Border Patrol was constructed on the eastern wall of the canyon leading up to Spooner's Mesa; the construction destroyed a paleolithic site and adobe ruins. [54] Since 2009, the bunkers atop Bunker Hill are no longer publicly accessible [49] because the Federal Government reacquired the land for construction of the Mexico–United States barrier. [4]
In late April 2018, some members of the Central American migrant caravan were contacted by American authorities while illegally entering the United States in the canyon. [55] They were prosecuted, while three people from India who were also contacted by American authorities around that time were processed for asylum. [56]
In 1960, Tijuana Ensenada highway was constructed through the canyon, just south of the Mexico–United States border. [5] The construction of the highway and a concrete channel in the canyon on the Mexican side led to people moving into Cañón de los Laureles in an unplanned manner. [5] In 1981, Goat Canyon was not a significant contributor to the 300,000 US gallons (1,100 kilolitres) of sewage flowing into the Tijuana River. [57] In 1983, due to sewage spills that originated in Goat Canyon, the installation of a pump was proposed. [58] Once installed, the pump, which handles flow from Smuggler's Gulch and Goat Canyon, was able to pump as much as 7,000,000 US gallons (26,000 kilolitres) a day. [59] In 1990, 110,000 US gallons (420 kilolitres) of sewage per day originated from the canyon and flowed into the Tijuana River. [60] By 1998, areas of low-income housing that were prone to damage during flash floods caused by seasonal rains had been built in the canyon. [8] [61] In 2001, a pipeline intended to send sewage from the canyon to the International Boundary Wastewater Treatment Plant was installed. [62] [63] Treated water from this plant is pumped to a location over 18,000 ft (5,500 m) offshore through a pipe that passes deeper than 100 ft (30 m) below the northern mouth of Goat Canyon. [62]
A sediment basin was constructed at the mouth of the canyon in 2005 because significant amounts of material originating from south of the border were deposited in the Tijuana River Estuary, leading to loss of habitat. [64] The yearly cost of emptying the sediment basin is between US$250,000 and over US$1,000,000. [65] By 2009, over 65,000 people lived in the Mexican portion of the canyon, part of which is Colonia San Bernardo. [66] By 2014, the population in the Mexican portion of the canyon had grown to 85,000; the housing was described as a "shanty town". [67] Even with the pipeline and later upgrades to the International Boundary Wastewater Treatment Plant, sewage still flows into Goat Canyon. [16]
In 2010, with the construction of the Mexico–United States barrier, diverts were installed to assist with the flow of water through the canyon; [68] in addition a 40 yards (37 m) long drainage culvert was installed underneath the barrier. [69] In 2012, labor-intensive trash nets were used to catch debris so it would not embed in the sediment. [65] Also in 2012, a $50,000 program to reduce erosion was conducted on the Mexican side of the canyon. [70] By 2014, environmentalists were able to create a recognized watershed council; this gave the area political representation with the aim of increasing the infrastructure within the Mexican portion of the canyon. [67]
In March 2017, black water flowed from the Mexican side of the canyon into the sediment basins; in previous month the water that came through was red. [71] Wastewater from upstream of the canyon was reported by United States Border Patrol agents in May 2017, leading to complaints about health concerns that joined bipartisan concerns from politicians such as Darrell Issa and Juan Vargas about wastewater from Mexico impacting the Tijuana River. [68] In 2017, funding for border wastewater projects was removed from the U.S. budget. [72] In October 2017, the amount of fecal indicator bacteria was found to be in above-average concentrations. [73] In February 2018, more than 50,000 US gallons (190 kilolitres) of waste—including sewage—flowed through the Goat Canyon pump station and spilled into the Tijuana River. [74] In May 2018, the Surfrider Foundation released a report about pollution in the Tijuana River, and Goat Canyon in particular, showing E. coli levels were significantly greater than standard levels; [75] the water that flows through Goat Canyon have been described as some of the worst that flow from Tijuana. [76] In January 2019, the catch basins were called a "success story of sorts". [77]
San Diego is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.3 million residents, it is the eighth-most populous in the United States and the second-most populous in the state of California, after Los Angeles. San Diego is the seat of San Diego County, which has a population of nearly 3.3 million people. It is known for its mild year-round Mediterranean climate, extensive beaches and parks, long association with the United States Navy, and recent emergence as a healthcare and biotechnology development center.
Tijuana is the most populous city in the state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality and the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area. It has a close proximity to the Mexico–United States border, which is part of the San Diego–Tijuana metro area.
Chula Vista is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. It is the second-most populous city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the seventh-most populous city in Southern California, the 15th-most populous city in the state of California, and the 82nd-most populous city in the United States. The population was 275,487 as of the 2020 census, up from 243,916 as of the 2010 census. Located in the South Bay, about halfway—7.5 miles (12.1 km)—between the two downtowns of the San Diego–Tijuana transborder metropolitan area. Chula Vista is named for its scenic location between San Diego Bay and coastal mountain foothills.
Imperial Beach is a residential beach city in San Diego County, California, with a population of 26,137 as of the 2020 United States census. It is in the South Bay area of San Diego County, 14.1 miles (22.7 km) south of downtown San Diego and 5 miles (8 km) northwest of downtown Tijuana, Mexico. Imperial Beach is the southernmost city in California and the West Coast of the United States.
San Ysidro is a district of San Diego, California, immediately north of the Mexico–United States border. It neighbors Otay Mesa West to the north, Otay Mesa to the east, and Nestor and the Tijuana River Valley to the west; together these communities form South San Diego, a practical exclave of the City of San Diego. Major thoroughfares include Beyer Boulevard and San Ysidro Boulevard.
The Tijuana River is an intermittent river, 120 mi (195 km) long, near the Pacific coast of northern Baja California state in northwestern Mexico and Southern California in the western United States. The river is heavily polluted with raw sewage from the city of Tijuana, Mexico.
The Colorado River dispute is a long-running dispute between the United States and Mexico over water rights to the Colorado River.
The San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway Company is a short-line American railroad founded in 1932 as the successor to the San Diego and Arizona Railway (SD&A), which was founded in 1906 by entrepreneur John D. Spreckels. Dubbed "The Impossible Railroad" by many engineers of its day due to the immense logistical challenges involved, the line was established in part to provide San Diego with a direct rail link to the east by connecting with the Southern Pacific Railroad lines in El Centro, California. Since 1979, the company has been owned by the San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board and its successor, the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System.
The Mexico–United States border is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from urban areas to deserts. It is the most frequently crossed border in the world with approximately 350 million documented crossings annually. Illegal crossing of the border to enter the United States has caused the Mexico–United States border crisis. It is one of two international borders that the United States has, the other being the northern Canada–United States border; Mexico has two other borders: with Belize and with Guatemala.
The South Bay, also known as South County, is a region in southwestern San Diego County, California, consisting of the cities and unincorporated communities of Bonita, Chula Vista, East Otay Mesa, Imperial Beach, Lincoln Acres, National City, and South San Diego.
The Sweetwater River is a 55-mile (89 km) long stream in San Diego County, California. From its headwaters high in the Cuyamaca Mountains, the river flows generally southwest, first through rugged hinterlands but then into the urban areas surrounding its mouth at San Diego Bay. Its drainage basin covers more than 230 square miles (600 km2), all of it within San Diego County.
San Diego–Tijuana is an international transborder agglomeration, straddling the border of the adjacent North American coastal cities of San Diego, California, United States, and Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. The 2020 population of the region was 5,456,577, making it the largest bi-national conurbation shared between the United States and Mexico, and the second-largest shared between the US and another country. The conurbation consists of San Diego County, in the United States and the municipalities of Tijuana, Rosarito Beach (126,980), and Tecate (108,440) in Mexico. It is the third most populous region in the California–Baja California region, smaller only than the metropolitan areas of Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.
San Diego Creek is a 16-mile (26 km) urban waterway flowing into Upper Newport Bay in Orange County, California, United States. Its watershed covers 112.2 square miles (291 km2) in parts of eight cities, including Irvine, Tustin, and Costa Mesa. From its headwaters in Laguna Woods the creek flows northwest to its confluence with Peters Canyon Wash, where it turns abruptly southwest towards the bay. Most of the creek has been converted to a concrete flood control channel, but it also provides important aquatic and riparian habitat along its course and its tidal estuary.
Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve is a natural reserve in Imperial Beach, California, and San Ysidro, San Diego. It encompasses the Tijuana River Estuary, located on the Mexico–United States border. It is divided into two parts: the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge on the north, and Border Field State Park in the south.
The Tijuana River Valley is a rural community in the southern section of San Diego, California. It neighbors Imperial Beach to the north and west, Egger Highlands and Nestor to the north, San Ysidro to the east, and the Mexico–United States border to the south. Major thoroughfares include Hollister Street, Monument Road, and Dairy Mart Road.
The Tijuana River Estuary is an intertidal coastal wetland at the mouth of the Tijuana River in San Diego County, California, United States, bordering Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. It is the location of the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge, Border Field State Park, and Tijuana River Valley Regional Park. The estuary is a shallow water habitat. Often termed an intermittent estuary since its volume is subject to the discharge controlled by the seasons of the year, the volume of the estuary fluctuates and at times there is dry land, or flooded areas. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1973.
The International Wastewater Treatment Plant (IWTP) is a plant developed by the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) in the South Bay area of San Diego, California. Construction began on a 75-acre site, west of San Ysidro in the Tijuana River Valley. The project, authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1989 and formally agreed between the two countries in July 1990, was part of a regional approach to solve long-standing problems, particularly the flow of sewage-contaminated water into the ocean via the Tijuana River.
Goat Canyon Trestle is a wooden trestle in San Diego County, California. At a length of 597–750 feet (182–229 m), it is the world's largest all-wood trestle. Goat Canyon Trestle was built in 1933 as part of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway, after one of the many tunnels through the Carrizo Gorge collapsed. The railway had been called the "impossible railroad" upon its 1919 completion. It ran through Baja California and eastern San Diego County before ending in Imperial Valley. The trestle was made of wood, rather than metal, due to temperature fluctuations in the Carrizo Gorge. By 2008, most rail traffic stopped using the trestle.
Goat Canyon is a valley in San Diego County, California, United States, located within the Carrizo Gorge in the Jacumba Mountains. The rock forming the canyon is crystalline basement. One feature of the canyon is a dry waterfall. The canyon is bridged by a wooden railroad trestle, the Goat Canyon Trestle, which is the world's largest curved all-wood trestle. The canyon is accessible by trail by traveling west from Mortero Palms.
The Smuggler's Gulch is part of a steep walled canyon about 2 miles (3.2 km) inland of the Pacific Ocean. The canyon crosses the Mexico–United States border, between Tijuana, Baja California, and San Diego, California, and Smuggler's Gulch is the part of the canyon on the US side of the border. It may also be called Cañón del Matadero or Valle Montezuma in Spanish, but these names apply more generally to the whole canyon. Smuggling activities within Smuggler's Gulch have occurred since the 19th century, giving this part of the canyon its name.
Our border journey led us to places like Goat Canyon, where according to Craig the water is visibly the worst, manifesting black and neon green water polluted with chemicals from industry and manufacturing just south in Tijuana. There is also an indeterminate amount of sewage which can come from the multitude of homes just south of the border.