The Border Field State Park™ Part 7

Swimming here may be one of the last things you do in life. Even breathing the gentle salt air could mean a casual visit to your physician of record.

There are other ways to cross the border and being launched over it by circus cannon does work. As no one in his right mind will visit this place, blasting people over the border into a nice big net seems perfectly normal.

You may also encounter diverse colonies of immigrant peoples digging at the low tide mark. They are harvesting clams. Whatever the arbitrary state and federal rules and regulations governing such collecting, the California Fish and Game authorities are many miles away and so most days, huge potato sacks of clams are eagerly collected for later sale in distant ethnic communities.

That these clams absorb the vast streams of nutrients flowing from the estuary and park means that beaches farther on will receive less. Medical care is provided to all in America and a weekend ethnic clam bake followed by a quick visit to a local hospital ER is fully covered by the taxpayer.

If you are wondering how bad these clams really are, the data is on file. Shellfish samples from the area tested for E. coli and other bacterial contamination offer 23,000 mpn (most probable number) per 100 grams of tissue which exceeds the maximum allowed by law by a factor of 153 times. Yes, that is not a misprint. That is not 1.53 or 15.3, it is 153 times the maximum allowable bacterial contamination.

The violence along this part of the border is almost comical. In the photo above we have a bright, sunny July day at the U.S. / Mexico border at California’s Border Field State Park. Please note that the entire California State Park is devoid of visitors except a covy of very well armed U.S. Border Patrol Agents in five vehicles including three paddy wagons with special air filtration systems and stainless steel interiors for their passengers-to-be.