Mexican sewage water gushing into Navy SEAL training waters is US’ ‘next Camp Lejeune,’ vets warn Trump admin

“Disgusting,” mentioned Navy SEAL veteran Rob Sweetman in describing the odor 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 digicam 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.

Hundreds of Marines and others have been sickened  at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune base between 1953 and 1987 on account of water contaminated by industrial solvents used to drink, bathe and prepare dinner on the coaching services and on-base housing. 

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The Primary Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) class participates in a surf passage coaching train at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in Coronado, California.  (Getty Pictures)

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 — informed Fox Digital in an April Zoom interview, “San Diego County is as huge as some states. It is large. Thousands and thousands of individuals stay right here and are respiratory the air of this water. It goes nicely past the army. It is a disaster. It is a FEMA-level travesty, and now we have simply been hiding it.” 

The Navy has deep roots within the San Diego space, with the US Naval Particular Warfare Command headquartered in America’s Best Metropolis and the place Navy SEAL candidates full their arduous six-month Primary Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) on the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado.

Naval Particular Warfare Middle reported 1,168 circumstances of acute gastrointestinal diseases amongst SEAL candidates between January 2019 and Could 2023 alone.  (Jeff Gum)

The sewage drawback 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, essentially the most on document since not less than 2000, the Los Angeles Instances reported on the time. 

The difficulty of sewage water flowing into U.S. waters is basically attributed to outdated wastewater infrastructure throughout the southern border, native media shops 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 normal 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. (Getty Pictures)

“Navy SEAL candidate publicity to contaminated water occurred as a result of (Naval Particular Warfare Command) didn’t comply with San Diego County’s Seaside and Bay Water High quality Program’s seaside closure postings,” the inspector normal report discovered. “Because of Navy SEAL candidate publicity to contaminated water throughout coaching, candidates are introduced with elevated well being dangers and NAVSPECWARCOM’s coaching mission might be impacted.”

‘IBS, GERD, pores and skin points, bizarre cancers’ 

It was when Monroe, who’s well-versed with veteran well being by VetComm, was working with SEALs who have 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 people who have been exiting the SEALs, you realize, at 14 years, 20 years, nearing their retirement,” Monroe informed Fox Information Digital. “And the claims that we have been making for these guys have been stunning to me as a result of numerous them, they’ve fight PTSD, numerous orthopedic points. However we have been having guys coming to us with, like, IBS, GERD, pores and skin points, bizarre cancers, and so they have been all attributing it to their time spent in San Diego coaching to be a SEAL in that water right here that now we have in San Diego.”

Swimming and spending time in water contaminated with feces can result in a bunch of diseases, together with bacterial, viral and parasitic infections that depart individuals 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. 

Navy SEAL vet Jeff Gum (Jeff Gum)

“I could not cease,” Gum recounted of how he could not hold water down with out vomiting. “You by no means actually wish to go to medical as a result of they will 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 complete 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 rigorous coaching, together with cold-water immersion, “surf torture,” buoy swims, mud runs, all whereas working on minimal sleep. 

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Navy SEAL vet Jeff Gum in Iraq.  (Jeff Gum)

“The solar goes down, and the instructors come out with huge machine weapons, that kicks it off,” Gum mentioned of how Hell Week started. “We run out to the seaside, proper into the ocean. You spend the remainder of the week soaking moist, lined in sand. And all over the place you go, you may have a 200-pound boat in your head that you just and your boat crew of six to seven guys will share the load of, and also you simply run all over the place.”

Hell Week coaching for the SEALs contains carrying boats. (Getty Pictures)

“You are simply within the water. There is not any 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 now we have to be within the water. Chilly, moist, depressing, would 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 recognized with viral gastroenteritis, generally often called the abdomen flu and extremely contagious, which then morphed into rhabdomyolysis as a consequence of exerting a lot power whereas dehydrated from viral gastroenteritis

Rhabdomyolysis is a severe sickness that causes muscle to interrupt down shortly and may result in “muscle dying” 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.  (Getty Pictures)

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 the primary part of BUD/S, however once more he went to medical, the place assessments confirmed that his “blood got here again poisonous” from rhabdomyolysis.

The SEAL was placed on medical depart and capable of totally recuperate in his house state of Pennsylvania earlier than he “crushed” the hellish coaching on his third strive. 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 informed Fox Digital that “everybody who goes by coaching goes to get sick.”

Tijuana, Mexico, prime, and San Diego (Getty Pictures)

“They’ll get infections, and it is horrible,” Sweetman informed Fox Digital in an April Zoom interview. “And a few may argue that that is Navy SEAL coaching. You must undergo the hardest situations to have the ability to survive and make it. I’d say that it is gotten just a little bit out of hand.” 

The SEAL vet, who lives within the San Diego space, mentioned the problem has gotten worse in recent times as Tijuana’s inhabitants grows.

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“After I went by 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 could possibly at all times odor it. And oftentimes, even within the bay, we would want to clean our moist go well with after being out on a swim.”

Rob Sweetman served eight years as a Navy SEAL.  (Rob Sweetman)

“Now, a number 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.”

Uncooked sewage from Tijuana is flowing into the San Diego space, inflicting sickness to unfold amongst SEALs and candidates. (Rob Sweetman)

‘An enormous nationwide disaster’ 

Gum and Monroe each mentioned that water challenge is a disaster, with Gum figuring out it as a nationwide safety disaster that might cull well-suited candidates from the SEALs as a consequence of acute diseases in addition to sicken energetic SEALs. 

“This can be a enormous nationwide disaster,” he mentioned. “Like half the SEAL groups are situated in San Diego, the opposite half are in Virginia Seaside. So once 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 practically three a long time. The disaster has price 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 drawback that price our authorities $21 to $25 billion,” she mentioned. “That is simply within the compensation instantly, just like the lawsuit portion of it. That does not cowl all of the compensation you need to pay these veterans tax-free for the remainder of their lives. I’d say that this challenge right here in San Diego, when you take a look at it over the time that individuals have been coaching right here, you are taking a look at one other $21 to $25 billion, plus the entire compensation that is going to return. It will be cheaper for our nation to repair this than it might to permit it to proceed.” 

The three veterans who spoke to Fox Digital all responded with optimism that the Trump administration will deal with the disaster and finish it. 

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Fox Digital solely reported earlier in April that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is heading to San Diego to fulfill with SEALs and see the disaster firsthand April 22, 2025.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is heading to San Diego to fulfill with SEALs and see the water firsthand April 22, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures)

“The uncooked sewage flowing from Mexico into the Tijuana River is creating severe, detrimental points for communities with affected waterways,” Zeldin informed Fox Digital forward of the Tuesday journey.  

“Making certain America’s waters are clear is a part of EPA’s core mission, and I sit up for being on the bottom in San Diego in a couple of days to evaluate the scenario and listen to instantly from these affected,” he mentioned. “It’s top-of-mind realizing that as this challenge persists, increasingly Navy SEALs stay vulnerable to illness due to the contaminated waterways they practice in. I strongly consider the time has come to finalize and implement an pressing technique to finish a long time 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.  (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Pictures)

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 severely,” the spokesperson mentioned. “Water high quality at Navy coaching places on the seaside 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.” 

Mexican sewage flows into the U.S. (Rob Sweetman)

Forward of Zeldin’s go to, the water flowing from Mexico into the U.S. is as “nasty” as ever, in accordance 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 odor it. That is disgusting. Because it pours by, it would not clear up. There is not any 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 circulate in the direction of Imperial Seaside and the ocean down right here.”

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“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 individuals to see simply how unhealthy it’s,” he mentioned. “The second that I depart right here, I will go take a bathe.”