Overview

The Tijuana Estuary Bioremediation Project represents a cornerstone of MycoDAO’s broader initiative to leverage fungal biotechnology in restoring ecosystems suffering from anthropogenic degradation. The estuary, located near Imperial Beach, is currently the most polluted beach in the United States, with environmental crises leading to requests for state-of-emergency declarations that to this day have not been approved. For over 20 years, pollution from untreated sewage and industrial waste has plagued the region, resulting in airborne toxins like cyanide and cadmium. Children at local schools are often restricted from outdoor play due to hazardous air quality.

Project Oyster, led by MycoDAO, is the only initiative in the nation actively funding and deploying remediation efforts to combat the largest ongoing pollution crisis in the United States—one that directly threatens Special Warfare Command and the Outlying Naval Base IB (ONBIB) on each side of the Tijuana Estuary. These critical naval facilities, alongside local residents, are the most severely impacted by this environmental disaster, posing a direct national security threat.

Despite millions in federal allocations, government efforts have exclusively focused on the treatment facility at the Tijuana River Inlet, failing to address the unchecked pollution entering through Smuggler’s Gulch—a critical attack vector bypassing the treatment plant. This unfiltered pollution floods ONBIB with toxic runoff during rain and flood events, jeopardizing naval operations, personnel health, and training continuity for both helicopter pilots and Navy SEALs.

The lack of environmental intelligence and governmental bureaucratic stagnation has created a weakened state where environmental negligence is now a strategic vulnerability. A recent bill aimed at funding comprehensive remediation had its allocated cleanup funds removed, shifting focus solely to treatment—a reactive measure that fails to remove the pollutants already embedded in the land and water.

Despite the federal government’s allocation of $100 million and a subsequent $250 million to expand the existing water treatment plant, increasing its capacity from 25 to 50 million gallons per day, the full upgrade will take at least five years to complete. Meanwhile, a donated trash barrier offers some mitigation, but it cannot prevent pollutants from entering the river, nor can it address contaminants already present in the estuary and surrounding soil.

This project highlights the exceptional metabolic versatility of Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushrooms) to metabolize hydrocarbons, microplastics, and heavy metals that pollute coastal zones due to industrial runoff and urban sprawl. By deploying fungi as biological remediators, MycoDAO aims not only to restore ecological balance but also to establish scalable, replicable models for global environmental rehabilitation.

In response, MycoDAO’s Project Oyster is leading the only large-scale remediation effort focused on mycoremediation and bioremediation solutions to restore the estuary, eliminate toxic contaminants, and protect national defense assets. This initiative goes beyond containment—it is a proactive operation to neutralize the environmental threat at its source, ensuring the long-term security and operational readiness of our nation's elite naval forces.

We are filling the gap where the government has failed—restoring our environment, protecting our military, and securing our future.

Join the mission. Fund the fight. Defend our coasts.

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Execution and Technologies

• Specialized oyster mushroom strains are cultivated and adapted to withstand and thrive in high-salinity environments typical of coastal estuaries, ensuring resilience and effectiveness in contaminated zones.
• The Mushroom1 platform, equipped with an array of environmental sensors, operates as a field station collecting granular real-time data on air, soil, and water quality. Mushroom1 also tracks fungal colonization patterns, monitoring pollutant degradation and ecosystem recovery progress.
• The project is executed in collaboration with local environmental agencies, academic researchers, and citizen science groups, ensuring rigorous data collection, validation, and community buy-in. Through partnerships with regional institutions, MycoDAO promotes transparency and participatory research, fostering greater ecological literacy.

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Outcomes and Benefits

• Significant reduction of pollutants, leading to measurable restoration of indigenous plant and animal species in the estuary.
• Accumulation of comprehensive longitudinal datasets mapping fungal remediation processes over time, which inform future scalability and optimization of fungal interventions.
• Increased public engagement through field days, educational workshops, and awareness campaigns, reinforcing the role of fungi in environmental sustainability and inspiring community-driven conservation efforts.
• Our Project Oyster will protect Special Warfare Command and the Outlying Naval Base IB, safeguarding these two vital naval facilities from pollution that threatens naval activities, personnel, and the continuity of training for both helicopter pilots and Navy SEALs.