page_title: Tijuana River
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Tijuana River / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: The Tijuana River Estuary — an estuary and wetlands at the mouth of the Tijuana River at the Pacific Ocean. Located in the San Diego–Tijuana region of San Diego County, California (U.S.) and Tijuana, Baja California state (Mexico). The Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve and Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge are located here. A National Natural Landmark of the United States.
context_page_description: The Tijuana River is an intermittent river, 120 mi long, near the Pacific coast of northern Baja California state in northwestern Mexico and Southern California in the western United States.
context_section_description: The Tijuana River rises in the Sierra de Juárez of northern Baja California, approximately 45 mi (70 km) ENE of Ensenada. It flows WNW through Tijuana, crossing the border approximately 5 mi (8 km) from the Pacific. It flows west, just skirting the international border south of the San Ysidro section of San Diego. The lower 2 mi (3 km) of the river form the broad mud flat estuary, and the Tijuana River Estuary is a rich habitat for wildlife, including over 370 species of birds; one of these species is the Ridgway's rail. It is Southern California's largest coastal wetland. It is naturally prone to flooding during heavy rains. The Tijuana River enters the Pacific 10 mi (15 km) south of downtown San Diego at the southern city limits of Imperial Beach.
  The river is an intermittent river, flowing naturally only during rains. The river is impounded in Mexico southeast of Tijuana by the Abelardo L. Rodríguez Dam for drinking water and irrigation. Former Baja California Governor Milton Castellanos Everardo constructed concrete barriers along the riverbank to prevent flooding during his tenure. The United States was supposed to build a complementary system of barriers to ensure flooding waters didn't flow back into Mexico, but instead adopted a dissipator flood control plan under the direction of the San Diego City Council, supported by ecologists, which preserved the estuary, which was then designated a wildlife sanctuary.
  The majority of its watershed is within Mexico, between Mesa de Otay to the east, and hills to the west.
caption: The Tijuana River Estuary.
exif: {"Image Software": "Picasa", "Image ExifOffset": "46", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "282", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3134", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1799", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1199", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "1799", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1199", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "146", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "41f2ceb14a9e1020fedc400d460dd4ad"}