San Diego County leaders are planning to ask Congress for upward of $400 million to fund projects to stop ongoing sewage spills from Mexico's Tijuana River Valley from flowing north onto U.S. shorelines, resulting in beach closures and sick swimmers in recent years.

The Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Wednesday met with leaders from San Diego County, the Port of San Diego and elected officials from the border cities of San Diego, Coronado, Imperial Beach and Chula Vista to discuss the problem. Tijuana's sewage system frequently discharges contaminants into waters that flow into the U.S. side of its border with Mexico, Fox News affiliate KSWB-TV reported.

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“The time for talk is over," Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina said. "The time of actually doing things and preventing sewage and toxic waste from reaching our beach is now."

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More than 110 million gallons of toxic stormwater have flowed from the river since April. Last month, the Imperial Beach shoreline was closed after sewage contamination flowed from Mexico.

Port of San Diego Commissioner Dan Malcolm said, "427 million gallons of sewage has hit our water and our beaches just this year alone."

Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey said the projects would go toward diverting "sewage and wastewater flows away from the Tijuana River Valley so that it can either be treated or diverted to an outflow pump that would pump the water far out into the Pacific Ocean so we wouldn’t be directly affected.”

“Ultimately this is Mexico’s responsibility," Bailey added, according to the news station. "Mexico really does need to step up and provide funding to address the situation. At the end of the day, their children are swimming in the sewage as well and recognizing that we are we bare the brunt of a lot of these sewage spills. We’re willing to step up and be partners with Mexico. We’re willing to do what we can on our side of the border, but Mexico needs to be a player as well. "

Dedina and San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer will meet with Mexican officials next week to discuss financial and technical solutions.

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Last year, Dedina said there had been over 330 spills into the river valley in the past three years. Pollution from toxic waters prompted beach closures in parts of Imperial Beach on more than 160 days in the two years.

The state of California and its cities sued the federal government last year over the sewage flows from Mexico. The suit argues that inaction by the federal government led to millions of gallons of "almost continuous" sewage into its waters. The state asked for system upgrades to divert polluted waters from Mexico.

Fox News reporter Lukas Mikelionis contributed to this report.