The Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) class participates in a surf passage training exercise at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in Coronado, California. (Getty Images)
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.
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."
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.
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"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, and 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 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."
The border fence between Imperial Beach near San Ysidro, Calif., 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 VGE. 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."
Rob Sweetman served eight years in the Navy SEALs. (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."
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin (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."
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."
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"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. The moment that I leave here, I'm going to go take a shower."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mexican-sewage-gushing-navy-seal-training-waters-us-next-camp-lejeune-vets-warn-trump-admin