San Diego County announced the appointment of Bridget Premont as its first pollution crisis chief; the county framed the hire as a move to coordinate a regional response to longstanding pollution in the Tijuana River Valley and South Bay communities.
Premont will lead teams across county departments and work closely with local, state, federal and Mexican partners to strengthen the region’s pollution response; the position will be based in the Office of County Counsel, the county said.
“For decades, San Diego families have paid the price for a sewage crisis that government after government has failed to solve,” County Board of Supervisors Chair said. “We’re done waiting for someone else to fix it. We’re moving forward with plans to capture and clean polluted river water on our side of the border. But we need more than a plan on paper. We need the expertise to navigate the engineering, funding and international diplomacy it takes to get this done. That’s why we’re building a team dedicated to turning plans into action.”
County Board of Supervisors Chair Pro Tempore said, “This is a full-scale economic disaster draining $500 million annually from our regional economy. Local business owners in Imperial Beach and across the South Bay are hanging on by a thread, and doing nothing is simply costing us far too much.”
Premont is a career U.S. foreign service officer; her recent posts included acting chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bujumbura, Burundi, and director of the Office of Environmental Quality in the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, where she supervised international environmental negotiations and managed $110 million in environmental grants, the county said.
From 2017 to 2021 Premont served as the political and economic chief at the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana and as acting consul general; the county said her work there helped secure more than $340 million in U.S. and Mexican federal funding to combat cross‑border water pollution. Her foreign service assignments have also included the Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Central African Republic, Cyprus, Ecuador, Haiti and Washington, D.C., and she was a diplomatic fellow at the Institute of the Americas in La Jolla from 2024-2025.
Premont holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Gonzaga University and a master’s in foreign service from Georgetown University, the county said.
“I’m honored to step into this role at such a critical moment for our region,” Premont said. “San Diego has shown remarkable unity and determination in elevating this issue, and I’m confident that together we can deliver real, lasting solutions. I look forward to working closely with our local, state, federal, and cross‑border partners to protect our communities and restore our environment. I’m ready to get to work.”
Local
Terra Lawson-Remer
Supervisor, Third District, San Diego County Board of Supervisors
Named once in this story.
Portrait: County of San Diego / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Local
Paloma Aguirre
Supervisor, First District, San Diego County Board of Supervisors
Named once in this story.
Portrait: City of Imperial Beach / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
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