User:RightCowLeftCoast/Sandbox/Goat Canyon (Tijuana River Valley)

Goat Canyon is a canyon that ends just north of the Mexico–United States border which is formed by Goat Canyon Creek. The creek receives waters and other run off from areas south of the border. Rocks which form the canyon walls are relatively young, being no older than 10,000 years old within the Quaternary period.. The west wall of the canyon, is about 5,000 m from the ocean. The east wall of the canyon is made up of the slope that leads to Spooner's Mesa; the mesa was named after a couple who had a homestead atop the mesa. The majority of the canyon and its watershed exists within Baja California.

Flora and fauna
Numerous sensitive and endangered species inhabit Goat Canyon, to include shrubs of the Southern willow, mule fat, Maritime succulent scrub varieties, and wildlife including least Bell's vireos, Belding's Savannah sparrow, and California gnatcatcher.. Within the northern portion of Goat Canyon is an environment categorized as southern coastal salt marsh, which supports some of the sensitive and endangered species previously listed.

History
The earliest human activity in the canyon, was a prehistoric camp site with a shell midden. In the area surrounding the canyon, evidence had been found of human activity relating to the San Dieguito and La Jollan prehistoric cultures. In 1769, the Portolá expedition's Portolá overland group, with whom Junípero Serra joined, came through Goat Canyon on their way to San Diego Bay. In the 1770s, Spaniards recorded that at the mouth of the canyon there was a Native American village, they named it "Milejo". In 1775, Kumeyaay living in the Tijuana River Valley, which Goat Canyon is in its southwestern portion, attacked Mission San Diego de Alcalá, which Serra had helped found several years prior; at the attack Friar Luis Jayme was martyred. During the time when the canyon was part of Alta California the canyon was part of Rancho Tía Juana in 1829. By 1833, the canyon was part of Rancho Melijo.

Sometime after the Mexican American War the land from Imperial Beach to Monument Mesa was owned by Elisha Babcock, who went on to develop Coronado; it then passed to one of the owners of the Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel, James Crafton around the Great Depression. Prior to 1872, the original El Camino Real alignment ran north from Goat Canyon. In the late 1880s, with completion of the National City and Otay Railway between San Diego and Tijuana, a city was planned for the area north of the westernmost border monument which never came to fruition.

In the early 20th Century, a homestead was formed consisting of a house and a farm; the homestead was occupied until the 1980s when it was condemned by the city of San Diego. The homestead was dairy farm owned by Harley E. Knox, who for a time was mayor of San Diego; it remained in the ownership of the Knox Family until at least 1981, but was out of their control due to government control beginning in 1970. While the early 20th Century structures are no longer present, excavation found that the area of the homestead was previously a site of a prehistoric camp. The camp shows evidence that local material had been processed into tools, as indicated by two alluvial deposits; it was recommended in 2001 that this site be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In addition to the homestead, there was also a pig farm, which was run by a Mexican family in the 1940s; the father of the family died during construction of a well at the farm, and the ruins of the home at the farm still existed up until 2001.

American government activity
American military activity around the area of Goat Canyon began to the west, with the surveying of a border marker, then began to travel east to delineate the border established in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ran through the canyon. This included placing a marker atop the hill west of Goat Canyon, boundary monument #257. While there was a temporary United States Army outpost established during the Mexican Revolution, a more significant Navy presence was established with the creation of an airfield in the late 1920s. In 1943 near the canyon, on the south side of the base, 35 buildings were built near Monument Road to support military operations at the airfield, including a trap house.

In 1935, a survey of preexisting defenses lead to planning for expansion of Coastal defenses for San Diego Bay. In 1942, during World War 2, the United States Army "base end stations" were constructed on the hill west of the canyon; the group of bunkers were named "Mexican Border Fire Control Station." In 1943, a fire control radar was installed at the Fire Control Station. The bunkers assisted targeting for Coastal Artillery batteries at Fort Rosecrans and Fort Emory. In 1951, a plane crashed at the airfield, leading to its end as an aerial gunnery range. After World War 2, in 1953, the United States Army transferred the Fire Control Station to the United States Navy, which placed it under control of the airfield; the border field airfield was itself under Naval Auxiliary Air Station Imperial Beach.

In 1961, Border Field along with Goat Canyon was given to Navy Electronics Laboratory. Other users of the area were the California National Guard who launched pilot-less drones in the decade prior, and the Imperial Beach Police Department who had a shooting range on the land. At the time, a renewed effort to build a city in the area was made, these plans never materialized. By 1971, the United States Navy transferred the site to the State of California, which opened Border Field State Park. Since 2009, the bunkers atop Bunker Hill are no longer publicly accessible; this is due to the Federal Government reacquiring land for construction of the Mexico–United States barrier.

Canon de los Laureles development and impact
In 1960, construction of Tijuana Ensenada highway occurred just south of the Mexico-United States Border, through the canyon. Following the construction of the highway, as well as a concrete channel in the canyon on the Mexican side, led to people moving into Canon de los Laureles in an unplanned manner. In 1981, Goat Canyon was not a significant contributor to the 300,000 USgal of sewage flowing into the Tijuana River. In 1983, due to sewage spills which originated from Goat Canyon it was proposed that a pump be installed. Once installed the pump, which handles flow from Smuggler's Gulch and Goat Canyon, can pump as much as 7,000,000 USgal a day. In 1990, 110,000 USgal a day of sewage originated from the canyon and flowed into the Tijuana River. By 1998, the canyon had areas of low-income housing, which was prone to damage during seasonal rains, which caused flash floods. In 2001, a pipeline was located in Goat Canyon, meant to send sewage from the canyon to the International Boundary Wastewater Treatment Plant. Treated water from the International Boundary Wastewater Treatment Plant, is pumped to a location over 18,000 ft off shore through a pipe which passes over 100 ft below the northern mouth of Goat Canyon.

A sediment basin was constructed at the mouth of the canyon in 2005, due to significant amounts of material originating from south of the border that ended up in the Tijuana River Estuary, leading to loss of habitat. The yearly cost of emptying the sediment basin is between a quarter to over a million dollars a year. By 2009, over 65,000 people lived in the Mexican portion of the canyon, part of which is Colonia San Bernardo. In 2014, the population in the Mexican portion of the canyon grew to 85,000, with the housing described as a "shanty town". Even with the pipeline and later upgrades to the International Boundary Wastewater Treatment Plant, there is sewage in Goat Canyon.

In 2010, with the construction of the Mexico–United States barrier, diverts were constructed to assist with the flow of water through the canyon. In 2012, labor intensive trash nets were used to catch debris, so it would not imbed in the sediment. Also in 2012, a $50,000 program was conducted to reduce erosion on the Mexican side of the canyon. By 2014, environmentalists were able to create a recognized "watershed council" to give the area political representation in order to increase infrastructure growth within the Mexican portion of the canyon. In March 2017, black water came through from the Mexican side of the canyon, and flowed into the sediment basins, the previous month the water that came through was red. Waste water from upstream of the canyon was reported by United States Border Patrol agents in May 2017, leading to complaints about health concerns which joined bipartisan concerns by others such as Darrell Issa and Juan Vargas about waste water from Mexico impacting the Tijuana River. In 2017, the American budget for border waste water projects was zeroed out. In October 2017, the amount of fecal indicator bacteria were found to be in above average concentrations.