SCOOP: "Without Trump, none of this was possible": EPA's Lee Zeldin hailed for "groundbreaking" leadership following Tijuana success

It only took EPA Administrator a few weeks to accomplish what Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) has called on California to do for decades: get Mexico to stop polluting the waters of the Pacific Ocean where the Tijuana River flows.

There’s a simple reason that Californians will literally breathe easier, Issa told the Washington Reporter: “without Trump, none of this was possible,” he explained.

Thanks to Zeldin and the Trump administration, America and Mexico reached “a permanent, 100 percent solution to the decades-old Tijuana River sewage crisis.” This is exactly what Issa started working on with Zeldin earlier this year, when the duo announced “lasting solutions” to the problem that Issa has spent much of his congressional tenure working on.

Mexican sewage led to a “foul smell” in the area, Zeldin said, but there were national security needs for action, too. Navy SEALs reported vomiting during their training due to pollution in the water.

The Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries is the first of its kind between America and Mexico during President Donald Trump’s second term. As part of the agreement, Mexico will free up almost $100 million it had previously pledged and will move up deadlines for multiple improvements that it already scheduled.

For example, ten million gallons of sewage a day that currently flow into the Tijuana River will reroute to a site southeast of Tijuana.

“I saw up close what Lee Zeldin can do as a member of Congress and on the campaign trail,” Issa continued. “But his leadership as Administrator of the EPA is next level. In only a few months he has successfully dispatched decades of a failed status quo in both California and Mexico. I think the Trump EPA is just getting started.”

The Trump administration’s action comes at a crucial time; recent studies found that even the air above the polluted water is dangerous.