‘We grow our food here’: Uncertainty looms over Tijuana River Valley Community Garden after lease termination

Edith Rivera works nights at the post office. But once she clocks out in the early hours of dawn, the energetic 61-year-old drives down to her vegetable garden plot at the Tijuana River Valley Community Garden — a canopied, lush batch of earth boasting a diverse array of vegetables, flowers and plants.

“I grow chayote, I grow squash, string beans, a little bit of eggplants, I have green beans there, I have the luffa and the bitter melon. And then outside, I have the sweet potatoes,” she said, pointing around her 30-foot-by-30-foot plot and smiling during the clear, bright Wednesday morning.

Originally from the Philippines, Rivera has lived in San Diego since 1989 and is a nearly lifelong vegetarian with a deep passion for growing her own food. She sees the garden not only as a source of sustenance and health, but also as a spiritual refuge and a community hub that she describes as her “second home.”

Jointly managed by the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County and the County of San Diego, this community garden is the largest of its kind in the region. Located amidst horse ranches in the city’s southernmost stretch, the garden spans the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park with more than 200 plots, including 10 quarter-acre farms leased for $324 to $1,600 per year.

But after news broke late last month that the Resource Conservation District (RCD) decided to terminate its lease, citing ongoing concerns about health and safety in the area based on the ongoing Tijuana River sewage crisis, Rivera and dozens of other gardeners are now facing the possibility of losing their plots after a 60-day grace period.

“When I heard the news, I was so devastated,” Rivera said. “I was so sad because, like I said, we grow our food here.”

Can Aguirre keep it open?

At a town hall held Tuesday evening in San Ysidro, roughly three miles from the community garden, San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre addressed a crowd of about 140 residents gathered to discuss the RCD’s lease termination and ongoing public health concerns in the Tijuana River Valley.

Many attendees waited anxiously beforehand, anticipating bad news about the garden’s future.

“Our biggest concern is long term,” said Clayton Howard, a 10-year gardener who shares a plot with his mother, a resident of 20 years. “Who’s going to be willing to take over [the lease]? Are our plots getting reassigned? Are people going to be able to stay where they are?”

Howard said he doesn’t dismiss the health risks in the area but questioned whether they justified possibly closing the garden.

“They’re afraid they’re going to get sued because somebody gets sick from the air — but everybody’s exposed to that air,” he said. “Of course we’re concerned about health risks, but it’s everywhere. There are ranches and homes right next to the garden. I didn’t really buy the whole hazard argument.”

Aguirre, who has made the Tijuana River Valley sewage crisis one of her top priorities in office, acknowledged the health concerns raised by the RCD and said the county is already working to mitigate pollution exposure. She described the crisis as “one of the clearest examples of what happens when government neglect becomes a way of doing business,” noting that contaminated runoff and airborne pollutants have affected local residents, schools, and growers alike.

“The system has been rigged against South Bay,” Aguirre said. “Our families, our workers, our gardeners — they all deserve safety and support. We shouldn’t have to worry that our air is contaminated or that we can’t go to our beaches.”

She said the county, in partnership with the San Diego Air Pollution Control District, has launched a program to provide free air purifiers to residents in affected ZIP codes, including those near the garden, and is pursuing millions in state funding to remove pollution “hot spots” in the Tijuana River channel.

As for the garden’s future, Aguirre said her office is coordinating with county staff to keep the site open throughout the RCD’s 60-day transition period while exploring long-term solutions.

“These gardens are more than just plots of land — they’re places of culture, tradition and connection,” she said. “I’m committed to finding a solution with our growers so nobody gets kicked out.”

Howard said the meeting helped ease some of the anxiety among gardeners.

“Paloma reassuring everybody was really good — it gave us more confidence in the short term,” he said. “Of course now, it’s kind of like, well, where do we go from here?”

Why terminate the lease?

Ann Baldridge, executive director of the RCD, said the district’s decision not to renew its county lease was a difficult but necessary step driven by health and safety concerns amid ongoing sewage pollution.

“But we really feel like that doesn’t mean the garden has to close,” Baldridge said. “It just means the RCD will ultimately stop managing it.”

The triggering event, she said, was the installation of new county-issued warning signs at the entrance to the garden in late August, which warned of “elevated hydrogen sulfide gas” and other potential toxic chemicals stemming from the Tijuana River sewage crisis.

But many gardeners said they only learned of the RCD’s lease ending after it was announced publicly in September.

“Many people were confused — they didn’t know what was going on,” said resident gardener Nanzi Muro, explaining that for Tagalog and Spanish-speaking people in the community, it was even more difficult to get an idea of what was going on.

Baldridge acknowledged that the timing and limited communication created frustration among gardeners but said staff had tried to share the news personally before official letters went out.

“We knew it would be very difficult news,” she said. “We wanted to go down there and let people know in person, just to soften that as much as we could.”

She emphasized that the decision was based on public health concerns, but that and liability considerations played a part in the board’s decision.

“Could our staff get sick? Could someone in the community get sick? And that’s, I think, what drove their decision,” she said. “We’re not a big agency — a lawsuit could be very damaging.”

‘210 different reasons’

Debbie and Bill Ridge, who split time between Imperial Beach and Tucson, Arizona, described the garden as their “backyard” — a place of both emotional grounding and practical purpose, where they can grow food, unwind and connect with others.

“We’ve come here and grilled chicken and fish,” Bill said, pointing toward a propane grill perched on the wooden deck he built in the corner of their plot. “When [Debbie’s] sisters come to town, we’re planning a big barbecue here.”

The Ridges joined the garden in 2019, after spending roughly six to seven months on a waitlist. Debbie said she called every two weeks until finally securing a plot when someone failed to renew. Their plot was initially overrun with weeds and debris, requiring several days of hard work to clear.

As county officials weigh the site’s future, gardeners like the Ridges say the space has become an anchor in their lives — one they hope won’t be lost.

“This is so important to so many people, for probably 210 different reasons,” Debbie said. “But basically it’s the same one — it does something for everybody in a way that we need.”