“Disgusting,” mentioned Navy SEAL veteran Rob Sweetman in describing the scent and mist of Mexican sewage spewing into U.S. waters as he stood on a hill overlooking the Tijuana River estuary in California.
Sweetman, a Navy veteran who served on the SEALs for eight years, spoke to Fox Information Digital to sound the alarm on a water disaster rocking the San Diego space, together with the place SEALs practice, taking a digital camera with him to indicate viewers firsthand how the contaminated water flows into the U.S.
Only one mile away from the place Sweetman spoke, SEALs and candidates practice in the identical water, which has sickened greater than 1,000 candidates in a five-year interval, per a Division of Protection watchdog report launched in February.
San Diego and the encircling space are in a clean-water disaster that has raged for many years, however it’s discovering revived concern from the Trump administration as SEALs and native veterans warn of a “nationwide safety disaster” that they are saying is on par with the Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, water disaster.
1000’s of Marines and others had been sickened at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune base between 1953 and 1987 because of water contaminated by industrial solvents used to drink, bathe and prepare dinner on the coaching amenities and on-base housing.
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The Fundamental Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) class participates in a surf passage coaching train at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in Coronado, California.
Kate Monroe, a Marine Corps veteran and CEO of VetComm — which advocates for disabled veterans and people navigating the VA’s difficult well being system — instructed Fox Digital in an April Zoom interview, “San Diego County is as large as some states. It is large. Tens of millions of individuals reside right here and are respiration the air of this water. It goes nicely past the navy. It is a disaster. It is a FEMA-level travesty, and we have now simply been hiding it.”
The Navy has deep roots within the San Diego space, with america Naval Particular Warfare Command headquartered in America’s Best Metropolis and the place Navy SEAL candidates full their arduous six-month Fundamental Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) on the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado.
The sewage downside flowing from neighboring Mexico into the U.S. has percolated in San Diego for years.
However the water disaster hit disaster stage when it was reported in 2024 that 44 billion gallons of contaminated water imbued with uncooked sewage was launched alongside the California coast in 2023, probably the most on report since at the very least 2000, the Los Angeles Instances reported on the time.
The problem of sewage water flowing into U.S. waters is essentially attributed to outdated wastewater infrastructure throughout the southern border, native media retailers recently reported, with Mexico reportedly within the midst of addressing its infrastructure to curb the leaks of sewage water.
The Tijuana River has for many years been suffering from sewage and waste that has affected its seashores and neighboring San Diego.
In February, the Division of Protection’s inspector basic launched a report discovering that the Naval Particular Warfare Middle reported 1,168 circumstances of acute gastrointestinal diseases amongst SEAL candidates between January 2019 and Could 2023 alone.
Navy SEAL trainees are proven throughout Hell Week.
“Navy SEAL candidate publicity to contaminated water occurred as a result of (Naval Particular Warfare Command) didn’t observe San Diego County’s Seaside and Bay Water High quality Program’s seashore closure postings,” the inspector basic report discovered. “Because of Navy SEAL candidate publicity to contaminated water throughout coaching, candidates are offered with elevated well being dangers and NAVSPECWARCOM’s coaching mission could possibly be impacted.”
It was when Monroe, who’s well-versed with veteran well being by means of VetComm, was working with SEALs who had been retiring that she realized the severity of the San Diego water air pollution of the previous few years.
She noticed a rise in well being claims associated to intestinal points and “bizarre cancers,” which was a departure from typical claims associated to PTSD or orthopedic illnesses.
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“I began creating relationships with the SEAL groups, the those that had been exiting the SEALs, you understand, at 14 years, 20 years, nearing their retirement,” Monroe instructed Fox Information Digital. “And the claims that we had been making for these guys had been stunning to me as a result of a whole lot of them, they’ve fight PTSD, a whole lot of orthopedic points. However we had been having guys coming to us with, like, IBS, GERD, pores and skin points, bizarre cancers, they usually had been all attributing it to their time spent in San Diego coaching to be a SEAL in that water right here that we have now in San Diego.”
Swimming and spending time in water contaminated with feces can result in a number of diseases, together with bacterial, viral and parasitic infections that depart folks nauseous, vomiting and dashing to the toilet.
Navy SEAL vet Jeff Gum was solely days from coming into the SEAL’s aptly named Hell Week — the fourth week of primary conditioning for SEAL candidates — when nausea hit him. He was trapped in a cycle of consuming water and vomiting when he realized a severe sickness had its grips on him.
Gum is a retired SEAL who served from 2007 to 2017 and was uncovered to the contaminated water in 2008 throughout BUD/S coaching off the San Diego coast.
“I could not cease,” Gum recounted of how he could not hold water down with out vomiting. “You by no means actually need to go to medical as a result of they’ll pull you out or make you get rolled to the subsequent class, however I could not even drink water with out throwing up. It is the one time in my entire life that this has occurred.”
Gum’s nausea overcame him on a Friday in 2008, with Hell Week kicking off that Sunday evening. Hell Week is a greater than five-day coaching that places candidates by means of rigorous coaching, together with cold-water immersion, “surf torture,” buoy swims, mud runs, all whereas working on minimal sleep.
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“The solar goes down, and the instructors come out with large machine weapons, that kicks it off,” Gum mentioned of how Hell Week started. “We run out to the seashore, proper into the ocean. You spend the remainder of the week soaking moist, coated in sand. And all over the place you go, you may have a 200-pound boat in your head that you simply and your boat crew of six to seven guys will share the burden of, and also you simply run all over the place.”
Hell Week coaching for the SEALs consists of carrying boats.
“You are simply within the water. There is no escaping it. It is a part of what makes BUD/S BUD/S. And it is a part of what makes the Navy SEALs America’s premier maritime particular operators,” he mentioned. “There’s not getting round how snug we have now to be within the water. Chilly, moist, depressing, does not matter, we suck it up and we do it.”
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Gum obtained IVs the weekend forward of Hell Week and was capable of hold meals and water down by the point the extraordinary coaching started, however he had been identified with viral gastroenteritis, generally often known as the abdomen flu and extremely contagious, which then morphed into rhabdomyolysis resulting from exerting a lot vitality whereas dehydrated from viral gastroenteritis
Rhabdomyolysis is a severe sickness that causes muscle to interrupt down rapidly and might result in “muscle loss of life” and the discharge of excessive ranges of myoglobin within the blood that may injure an individual’s kidneys.
The border fence between Imperial Seaside close to San Ysidro, California, proper, and Playas de Tijuana close to Tijuana, Mexico.
Gum failed the primary part of BUD/S, however he was granted permission to return to coaching for a second time after senior leaders noticed he had viral gastroenteritis. Gum once more went by means of the primary part of BUD/S, however once more he went to medical, the place exams confirmed that his “blood got here again poisonous” from rhabdomyolysis.
The SEAL was placed on medical depart and capable of totally get well in his residence state of Pennsylvania earlier than he “crushed” the hellish coaching on his third attempt. He served on SEAL Workforce 5, deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, and taught combatives and prisoner dealing with to SEAL trainees in San Diego from 2013 till his retirement in 2017.
Sweetman instructed Fox Digital that “everybody who goes by means of coaching goes to get sick.”
Tijuana, Mexico, prime, and San Diego
“They’ll get infections, and it is horrible,” Sweetman instructed Fox Digital in an April Zoom interview. “And a few would possibly argue that that is Navy SEAL coaching. It’s a must to undergo the hardest circumstances to have the ability to survive and make it. I’d say that it is gotten a little bit bit out of hand.”
The SEAL vet, who lives within the San Diego space, mentioned the difficulty has gotten worse in recent times as Tijuana’s inhabitants grows.
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“Once I went by means of coaching, it was completely a factor that they’d shut down the Imperial Seaside as a result of the ocean water was so unhealthy, as a result of the waste coming from Tijuana had contaminated the water,” Sweetman mentioned. “You would at all times scent it. And oftentimes, even within the bay, we would want to scrub our moist swimsuit after being out on a swim.”
“Now, a few of the coaching causes us to be deeply immersed within the water, and infections and all forms of issues can come up from being within the water. However I am going to say that it has gotten considerably worse because the inhabitants has doubled in Tijuana.”
Gum and Monroe each mentioned that water challenge is a disaster, with Gum figuring out it as a national security disaster that would cull well-suited candidates from the SEALs resulting from acute diseases in addition to sicken energetic SEALs.
“This can be a enormous nationwide disaster,” he mentioned. “Like half the SEAL groups are positioned in San Diego, the opposite half are in Virginia Seaside. So if you’ve received half the SEAL groups who’re getting uncovered to this, then it is a main challenge.”
Monroe known as it the “subsequent Camp Lejeune” disaster, which sickened Marines with contaminated consuming water on the North Carolina Marine Corps base camp for almost three many years. The disaster has value the U.S. billions of {dollars}, together with authorized prices and settlements to vets and their households.
“That is going to be, for my part, the subsequent Camp Lejeune water downside that value our authorities $21 to $25 billion,” she mentioned. “That is simply within the compensation straight, just like the lawsuit portion of it. That does not cowl all of the compensation you must pay these veterans tax-free for the remainder of their lives. I’d say that this challenge right here in San Diego, if you happen to have a look at it over the time that folks have been coaching right here, you are one other $21 to $25 billion, plus all the compensation that is going to return. It will be cheaper for our nation to repair this than it will to permit it to proceed.”
The three veterans who spoke to Fox Digital all responded with optimism that the Trump administration will sort out the disaster and finish it.
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Fox Digital completely reported earlier in April that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is heading to San Diego to satisfy with SEALs and see the disaster firsthand April 22, 2025.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is heading to San Diego to satisfy with SEALs and see the water firsthand April 22, 2025.
“The uncooked sewage flowing from Mexico into the Tijuana River is creating severe, detrimental points for communities with affected waterways,” Zeldin instructed Fox Digital forward of the Tuesday journey.
“Guaranteeing America’s waters are clear is a part of EPA’s core mission, and I stay up for being on the bottom in San Diego in a number of days to evaluate the scenario and listen to straight from these affected,” he mentioned. “It’s top-of-mind figuring out that as this challenge persists, an increasing number of Navy SEALs stay vulnerable to illness due to the contaminated waterways they practice in. I strongly imagine the time has come to finalize and implement an pressing technique to finish many years of uncooked sewage coming into the U.S.”
BUD/S college students take part in SEAL coaching on the Naval Particular Warfare Middle, Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, California.
A spokesperson for Naval Particular Warfare added in a remark to Fox Information Digital that SEALs and candidates’ well being are a prime precedence and that officers are monitoring water high quality in areas the place they practice.
“The Navy takes the well being and security of our personnel very significantly,” the spokesperson mentioned. “Water high quality at Navy coaching places on the seashore waterfront is intently monitored in coordination with native authorities. We’re totally dedicated to making sure warfighters at U.S. Naval Particular Warfare Command practice in a protected atmosphere.”
Forward of Zeldin’s go to, the water flowing from Mexico into the U.S. is as “nasty” as ever, in keeping with Sweetman.
“What I see here’s a large quantity of inexperienced, nasty water,” Sweetman mentioned whereas pointing on the murky water. “I imply, you may scent it. That is disgusting. Because it pours by means of, it does not clear up. There is no readability to it. It simply turns right into a foam. And the froth sits on prime of the water the place it is murky and it simply continues to circulation in the direction of Imperial Seaside and the ocean down right here.”
“It is completely disgusting. I am unable to remark strongly sufficient about how unhealthy it’s to be right here. I am right here particularly as a result of I would like folks to see simply how unhealthy it’s,” he mentioned. “The second that I depart right here, I will go take a bathe.”
Authentic article supply: Mexican sewage gushing into Navy SEAL training waters is US’ ‘next Camp Lejeune,’ vets warn
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