IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. — Activists pushed for action at a rally Saturday morning addressing the toxic flow of sewage from Tijuana into Southern California beaches.

Sewage flowing into the Tijuana River has been responsible for closing beaches an average of 300 days a year. Environmental organization “Stop the Poop” wants to see permanent solutions.

“This is environmental and biological terrorism on the people of the United States of America,” said Stop the Poop Founder Baron Partlow.

Partlow was joined by congressional candidate Carl DeMaio, who is proposing drastic steps to confront the issue. “The only way for us to change the equation is to threaten to close the border every day that one of our beaches are forced to be closed by raw sewage,” DeMaio said. “That then provides an economic penalty for Tijuana and Baja California politicians to actually do the job of cleaning up their crap water.”

Last month, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill to redirect $15 million toward projects fighting the toxic sewage problem in the Tijuana River. Activists at Saturday morning’s rally in Imperial Beach say they’re not stopping until the problem reaches the highest levels of government.

“Get a push to keep this going up the chain and push the president to get this across his desk and take action,” Bartlow said.