Situated by the border of Mexico, Imperial Beach California is simultaneously blessed with good waves and plagued by serious environmental challenges. From horrendous sewage spills via the Tijuana River, to coastal flooding that’s inundating it’s beach front roads, the town is facing serious threats. Enter Serge Dedina, the 53-year-old mayor who has surfed there most of his life and taken up the fight to preserve the place.
Dedina’s list of environmental credentials is heroic. He completed an M.S. and Ph.D. in Geography, wrote several books including, Saving the Gray Whale, Wild Sea, and Surfing the Border: Adventures at the Edge of the Ocean, and co-founded WILDCOAST, “an international group that conserves coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife.” Dedina has also received numerous conservation accolades, including the “Coastal Hero” award from the California Coastal Commission, and the San Diego Zoological Society’s Conservation Medal.
Even with a super mayor striving to make a difference, though, battling the effects of climate change is no easy task and extremely expensive. Costs to prevent and prepare for further coastal inundation are exorbitant. As Dedina stated in a recent interview with Robin Young for Here and Now, “We have to spend tens and tens of millions of dollars. About 30 percent of our city will be impacted by coastal flooding. In the future, we’ll lose 90 percent of our Seacoast Drive. Two elementary schools would be impacted, and just the cost of moving a sewer line inland will cost us $10 million.”
So where’s the money to protect Imperial Beach and locations like it going to come from? If Dedina has his way, a group of fossil fuel companies will have to pay. Imperial Beach is joining Marin and San Mateo counties in a law suit against over 30 oil, gas, and coal companies in an effort to compensate the public for the harm inflicted by climate change.
If successful the action could leverage a conservation based perspective and enforce some accountability on companies profiting off fossil fuel energy at the expense of coastal environments and habitats. Ideally it would lead to a more thoughtful and sustainable approach to energy production and consumption. Or maybe, it will just help a coastal town with a surfing mayor fund a readjustment of infrastructure at the beach.
Either way it’s a bold move that’s sure to ruffle the surface of the status quo and cause waves. How well this specific groundswell of political motivation at the city and county levels is likely to fare in the face of industry is unknown. And yet, the outcome of the lawsuits will be eagerly awaited by those close to shore like a hyped-up surf forecast, or at least a prediction of decent conditions.
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