“Disgusting,” said Navy SEAL veteran Rob Sweetman in describing the smell 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 News Digital to sound the alarm on a water crisis rocking the San Diego area, including where SEALs train, taking a camera with him to show viewers firsthand how the contaminated water flows into the U.S. 

Just one mile away from where Sweetman spoke, SEALs and candidates train in the same water, which has sickened more than 1,000 candidates in a five-year period, per a Department of Defense watchdog report released in February.

San Diego and the surrounding area are in a clean-water crisis that has raged for decades, but it is finding revived concern from the Trump administration as SEALs and local veterans warn of a “national security crisis” that they say is on par with the Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, water crisis.

Thousands of Marines and others were sickened  at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune base between 1953 and 1987 as a result of water contaminated by industrial solvents used to drink, bathe and cook at the training facilities and on-base housing. 

EPA CHIEF TAKES ON MEXICAN ‘SEWAGE CRISIS’ FLOWING INTO US WATERS WHERE NAVY SEALS TRAIN

Kate Monroe, a Marine Corps veteran and CEO of VetComm — which advocates for disabled veterans and those navigating the VA’s complicated health system — told Fox Digital in an April Zoom interview, “San Diego County is as big as some states. It’s giant. Millions of people live here and are breathing the air of this water. It goes well beyond the military. It’s a crisis. It’s a FEMA-level travesty, and we have just been hiding it.” 

The Navy has deep roots in the San Diego area, with the United States Naval Special Warfare Command headquartered in America’s Finest City and where Navy SEAL candidates complete their arduous six-month Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado.

Naval Special Warfare Center reported 1,168 cases of acute gastrointestinal illnesses among SEAL candidates between January 2019 and May 2023 alone.  (Jeff Gum)

The sewage problem flowing from neighboring Mexico into the U.S. has percolated in San Diego for years. 

But the water crisis hit crisis level when it was reported in 2024 that 44 billion gallons of contaminated water imbued with raw sewage was released along the California coast in 2023, the most on record since at least 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. 

The issue of sewage water flowing into U.S. waters is largely attributed to outdated wastewater infrastructure across the southern border, local media outlets recently reported, with Mexico reportedly in the midst of addressing its infrastructure to curb the leaks of sewage water. 

The Tijuana River has for decades been plagued by sewage and waste that has affected its beaches and neighboring San Diego.

In February, the Department of Defense’s inspector general released a report finding that the Naval Special Warfare Center reported 1,168 cases of acute gastrointestinal illnesses among SEAL candidates between January 2019 and May 2023 alone. 

Navy SEAL trainees are shown during Hell Week. (Getty Images)

“Navy SEAL candidate exposure to contaminated water occurred because (Naval Special Warfare Command) did not follow San Diego County’s Beach and Bay Water Quality Program’s beach closure postings,” the inspector general report found. “As a result of Navy SEAL candidate exposure to contaminated water during training, candidates are presented with increased health risks and NAVSPECWARCOM’s training mission could be impacted.”

‘IBS, GERD, skin issues, weird cancers’ 

It was when Monroe, who is well-versed with veteran health through VetComm, was working with SEALs who were retiring that she realized the severity of the San Diego water pollution of the past few years.

She observed an increase in health claims related to intestinal issues and “weird cancers,” which was a departure from typical claims related to PTSD or orthopedic ailments.

US SENATOR BLASTS PRESIDENT OF MEXICO, SAYS TOXIC SEWAGE DUMP THREATENS ‘NATIONAL SECURITY’

“I started creating relationships with the SEAL teams, the people that were exiting the SEALs, you know, at 14 years, 20 years, nearing their retirement,” Monroe told Fox News Digital. “And the claims that we were making for these guys were surprising to me because a lot of them, they have combat PTSD, a lot of orthopedic issues. But we were having guys coming to us with, like, IBS, GERD, skin issues, weird cancers, and they were all attributing it to their time spent in San Diego training to be a SEAL in that water here that we have in San Diego.”

Swimming and spending time in water contaminated with feces can lead to a host of illnesses, including bacterial, viral and parasitic infections that leave people nauseous, vomiting and rushing to the bathroom. 

Navy SEAL vet Jeff Gum was only days from entering the SEAL’s aptly named Hell Week — the fourth week of basic conditioning for SEAL candidates — when nausea hit him. He was trapped in a cycle of drinking water and vomiting when he realized a serious illness had its grips on him. 

Gum is a retired SEAL who served from 2007 to 2017 and was exposed to the contaminated water in 2008 during BUD/S training off the San Diego coast. 

Navy SEAL vet Jeff Gum (Jeff Gum)

“I couldn’t stop,” Gum recounted of how he couldn’t keep water down without vomiting. “You never really want to go to medical because they can pull you out or make you get rolled to the next class, but I couldn’t even drink water without throwing up. It’s the only time in my whole life that this has happened.”

Gum’s nausea overcame him on a Friday in 2008, with Hell Week kicking off that Sunday night. Hell Week is a more than five-day training that puts candidates through rigorous training, including cold-water immersion, “surf torture,” buoy swims, mud runs, all while operating on minimal sleep. 

SAN DIEGO SUBURB FACES ‘SEWAGE CRISIS’ FROM LOCAL BEACH

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

“The sun goes down, and the instructors come out with big machine guns, that kicks it off,” Gum said of how Hell Week began. “We run out to the beach, right into the ocean. You spend the rest of the week soaking wet, covered in sand. And everywhere you go, you have a 200-pound boat on your head that you and your boat crew of six to seven guys will share the weight of, and you just run everywhere.”

Hell Week training for the SEALs includes carrying boats. (Getty Images)

“You’re just in the water. There’s no escaping it. It’s part of what makes BUD/S BUD/S. And it’s part of what makes the Navy SEALs America’s premier maritime special operators,” he said. “There’s not getting around how comfortable we have to be in the water. Cold, wet, miserable, doesn’t matter, we suck it up and we do it.” 

MEXICO IS POISONING SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN A BORDER CRISIS ALMOST NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT

Gum received IVs the weekend ahead of Hell Week and was able to keep food and water down by the time the intense training began, but he had been diagnosed with viral gastroenteritis, commonly known as the stomach flu and highly contagious, which then morphed into rhabdomyolysis due to exerting so much energy while dehydrated from viral gastroenteritis

Rhabdomyolysis is a serious illness that causes muscle to break down quickly and can lead to “muscle death” and the release of high levels of myoglobin in the blood that can injure a person’s kidneys.

The border fence between Imperial Beach near San Ysidro, California, right, and Playas de Tijuana near Tijuana, Mexico.  (Getty Images)

Gum failed the first phase of BUD/S, but he was granted permission to return to training for a second time after senior leaders saw he had viral gastroenteritis. Gum again went through the first phase of BUD/S, but again he went to medical, where tests showed that his “blood came back toxic” from rhabdomyolysis.

The SEAL was put on medical leave and able to fully recover in his home state of Pennsylvania before he “crushed” the hellish training on his third try. He served on SEAL Team Five, deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, and taught combatives and prisoner handling to SEAL trainees in San Diego from 2013 until his retirement in 2017.

Sweetman told Fox Digital that “everyone who goes through training is going to get sick.”

Tijuana, Mexico, top, and San Diego (Getty Images)

“They’re going to get infections, and it’s terrible,” Sweetman told Fox Digital in an April Zoom interview. “And some might argue that this is Navy SEAL training. You have to go through the toughest conditions to be able to survive and make it. I would say that it’s gotten a little bit out of hand.” 

The SEAL vet, who lives in the San Diego area, said the issue has gotten worse in recent years as Tijuana’s population grows.

I TRAINED WITH THE NAVY SEALS FOR A DAY. THIS IS WHAT I LEARNED

“When I went through training, it was absolutely a thing that they’d shut down the Imperial Beach because the ocean water was so bad, because the waste coming from Tijuana had infected the water,” Sweetman said. “You could always smell it. And oftentimes, even in the bay, we’d need to wash our wet suit after being out on a swim.”

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

“Now, some of the training causes us to be deeply immersed in the water, and infections and all types of things can come up from being in the water. But I’ll say that it has gotten significantly worse as the population has doubled in Tijuana.”

Raw sewage from Tijuana is flowing into the San Diego area, causing illness to spread among SEALs and candidates. (Rob Sweetman)

‘A huge national crisis’ 

Gum and Monroe both said that water issue is a crisis, with Gum identifying it as a national security crisis that could cull well-suited candidates from the SEALs due to acute illnesses as well as sicken active SEALs. 

“This is a huge national crisis,” he said. “Like half the SEAL teams are located in San Diego, the other half are in Virginia Beach. So when you’ve got half the SEAL teams who are getting exposed to this, then it’s a major issue.” 

Monroe called it the “next Camp Lejeune” crisis, which sickened Marines with contaminated drinking water at the North Carolina Marine Corps base camp for nearly three decades. The crisis has cost the U.S. billions of dollars, including legal costs and settlements to vets and their families. 

“This is going to be, in my opinion, the next Camp Lejeune water problem that cost our government $21 to $25 billion,” she said. “That’s just in the compensation directly, like the lawsuit portion of it. That doesn’t cover all the compensation you have to pay these veterans tax-free for the rest of their lives. I would say that this issue here in San Diego, if you look at it over the time that people have been training here, you’re looking at another $21 to $25 billion, plus all of the compensation that’s going to come. It would be cheaper for our country to fix this than it would to allow it to continue.” 

The three veterans who spoke to Fox Digital all responded with optimism that the Trump administration will tackle the crisis and end it. 

WILL CAIN, NAVY SEALS HONORS VETERANS AT 2024 NYC SEAL SWIM

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

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

“The raw sewage flowing from Mexico into the Tijuana River is creating serious, detrimental issues for communities with affected waterways,” Zeldin told Fox Digital ahead of the Tuesday trip.  

“Ensuring America’s waters are clean is part of EPA’s core mission, and I look forward to being on the ground in San Diego in a few days to assess the situation and hear directly from those affected,” he said. “It is top-of-mind knowing that as this issue persists, more and more Navy SEALs remain at risk of sickness because of the contaminated waterways they train in. I strongly believe the time has come to finalize and implement an urgent strategy to end decades of raw sewage entering the U.S.” 

BUD/S students participate in SEAL training at the Naval Special Warfare Center, Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, California.  (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

A spokesperson for Naval Special Warfare added in a comment to Fox News Digital that SEALs and candidates’ health are a top priority and that officials are monitoring water quality in areas where they train.  

“The Navy takes the health and safety of our personnel very seriously,” the spokesperson said. “Water quality at Navy training locations on the beach waterfront is closely monitored in coordination with local authorities. We are fully committed to ensuring warfighters at U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command train in a safe environment.” 

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

Ahead of Zeldin’s visit, the water flowing from Mexico into the U.S. is as “nasty” as ever, according to Sweetman. 

“What I see here is a tremendous amount of green, nasty water,” Sweetman said while pointing at the murky water. “I mean, you can smell it. This is disgusting. As it pours through, it doesn’t clear up. There’s no clarity to it. It just turns into a foam. And the foam sits on top of the water where it’s murky and it just continues to flow towards Imperial Beach and the ocean down here.”

“It’s absolutely disgusting. I can’t comment strongly enough about how bad it is to be here. I’m here specifically because I want people to see just how bad it is,” he said. “The moment that I leave here, I’m going to go take a shower.”

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A beloved garden program at a San Francisco elementary school is at risk of being cut, as federal funding reductions to AmeriCorps begin to affect education programs across the country.

At Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School in the city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood, the garden is more than just a patch of greenery. It’s where students learn how food grows, build healthy habits, and connect with the natural world.

“Today they were looking for bugs and spiders and things of that nature,” said Rhonda Hontales, a grandmother of two students at the school. “We’re trying to teach them healthy eating habits and also help them understand how things grow.”

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But that hands-on learning experience may soon disappear. In an email sent to parents this week, the school announced that the garden program, which serves more than 400 students, is in jeopardy due to cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, that affect AmeriCorps, the federal agency that helps fund the garden program.

AmeriCorps provides volunteers and services for a wide range of national needs, including disaster relief, education, public health, and support for veterans. At Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary, AmeriCorps has helped fund the gardening instructor position.

“They cannot afford to keep the gardening teacher staffed,” Hontales said.

The San Francisco Unified School District did not respond to ABC7 News anchor Dion Lim’s questions about which additional schools might be affected by the funding cuts. However, in a statement, the district told Lim it has filed a lawsuit against AmeriCorps.

The lawsuit alleges the agency “illegally conditioned continued program funding on compliance with President Trump’s executive orders and actions.” A court hearing is scheduled for next month.

MORE: Federal workers on DOGE impact during Trump’s first 100 days: ‘We want to come back to work’

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Tuesday that California is joining a coalition of 22 attorneys general and states suing the federal government. The coalition claims that proposed cuts threaten $400 million in AmeriCorps grants, which account for more than 40% of the agency’s national budget.

“Trump and Elon Musk don’t have the right to gut AmeriCorps,” Bonta said. “We won’t let the president dismantle an agency that represents the best of what we can be.”

Back at Stevenson Elementary, Hontales said she’s not waiting for a court decision. She plans to help fundraise to save the garden program for her grandsons and their classmates.

“I hope there’s a way to get this funded and that it’ll be reversed,” she said. “That’s what we want – the best things for our children.”

As the dust settles on the 2025 NFL Draft, the Denver Broncos’ approach to upgrading their tight end room remains a topic of concern. Despite a clear need for improvement at the position, Denver’s moves suggest they may still be walking a tightrope heading into the new season.

Tight end productivity was a problem — is Evan Engram the solution or just a stopgap?

The Broncos’ tight end corps struggled mightily in 2024, with Lucas Krull leading the group with just 19 receptions. That level of production is far from what’s expected in a modern NFL offense, especially one that lacks elite wide receiver depth.

In response, Denver made a splash by signing veteran Evan Engram in free agency. A former Pro Bowler, Engram posted an impressive 100 receptions in 2023. However, red flags remain. The 30-year-old missed eight games last season due to injury and has a history of durability issues. Additionally, while Engram can be a high-volume target, concerns persist about his ability to generate yards after the catch — a critical skill in Sean Payton’s offense.
If Engram is sidelined again, Denver could be forced to rely on a group that already proved inadequate last season. That’s a troubling possibility for a team trying to build a stable foundation around a still-developing quarterback situation.

Late-round flier Caleb Lohner is intriguing, but far from ready

Rather than targeting tight end help early in the draft, Denver waited until the seventh round to select Caleb Lohner — a player better known for his basketball resume than football. The 6’8″ Lohner played hoops at Baylor, BYU, and Utah before switching to football, where he recorded just four catches — all touchdowns — in one season.
Lohner is clearly a long-term developmental project, not a plug-and-play contributor. While his size and athleticism make him an intriguing red-zone weapon, he’s unlikely to offer meaningful production in 2025.
Also Read: Jacksonville Jaguars’ 2025 draft blunder: Skipping defensive tackle could ruin their season
With the season approaching, Denver’s tight end room hinges heavily on Engram staying healthy and producing at a high level. The team may look to bolster the position via late free-agent signings or post-camp roster cuts, but as of now, depth and experience remain thin.
If Engram goes down, it’s hard to see how the Broncos avoid falling back into the same offensive rut. The potential is there — but so are the risks.