HTO Leads Charge

Against Septic Pollution

• 
  Tabor Lane, Montecito, sewer project moves forward: On Monday, August 28, 2006, the Montecito Sanitary District gave unanimous approval to extending sewer service to the residences of Tabor Lane, which extends north of East Valley Road. The MSD waived its previous requirement of 80% resident participation in the project, and agreed to put up funding for the sewer line with 50% of the residents agreeing to pay to hook up. Heal the Ocean has been working with MSD to get septic systems out of the creek areas of Montecito and replaced with public sewer systems.
• In October 2005, residents along Orchard Avenue in Montecito voted to get rid of their septic tanks and hook up to the Montecito Sanitary District (MSD). This action was facilitated by Heal the Ocean, working with residents to provide information and costs, as well as encourage their signing of a petition to the MSD to request service.
  
  
  At $13,000 per property, the Orchard Avenue residents removed nearly two dozen septic leachfields from a shallow groundwater-creek area that drains, eventually, to the ocean. Heal the Ocean is currently repeating this exercise for Tabor Lane in Montecito, another creek area where lots are generally small.
  
  
  In this manner, Heal the Ocean is working with sanitary districts and homeowners, neighborhood by neighborhood, to get septic systems out of inappropriate areas - along creeks or on beaches and lagoons, or where groundwater is shallow.
  
  
  
• Red dots on the map above show the location of septic systems along the south coast of Santa Barbara County. The map shows especially heavy concentrations along the coast and in creek areas, with the biggest cluster (at the left end of the coast) being Hope Ranch.
  
  HTO has been collaborating with Santa Barbara County Environmental Health Services (EHS) on how monies should be allocated from a $2 million fund brought into the county by former assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson for septic cleanup work. Our organization successfully provided the facilitating link between EHS and the city of Santa Barbara for a septic-to-sewer engineering study now being finalized for the 100+ homes of Braemar/Yankee Farm, a city area which drains into the Arroyo Burro watershed.
  
  Hannah-Beth funds are also being used to update the sewer engineering plans for the "South Coast Beach Communities Septic-to-Sewer" project, which includes Rincon. (HTO is paying, up to $48,000 to have the EIR work updated for the the project).
  
  
  With Hannah-Beth funds, blueprint sewer engineering studies for the following city-wide "pocket" areas will also be done:
  
  • Veronica Springs area
  • NorthviewRoad/Vista Vallejo area
  • Sunset Road/Fairfax Road area
  • Calle Cita/Carol Avenue/Russell Way area
  • Conejo Road (near Camino Alto)
  • Eucalyptus Knolls (Barker Pass area)

In addition to working with homeowner groups within these "pocket" areas, Heal the Ocean will be collaborating with EHS on an upcoming presentation to the County Board of Supervisors on the best use of the rest of the Hannah-Beth funds, further recommendations which include:

• A programmatic environmental impact report (EIR), to cover all projects for wastewater upgrade (not just sewer) in Santa Barbara county, where septic systems have proven to be a problem - $250,000.

• Septage Treatment Facility Preliminary Design (because septic waste is so heavily concentrated, septic waste haulers must take pumped material to Ventura or Santa Maria) - $200,000.

• Feasibility Design of Pressurized (STEP) Collection Systems and Area-Specific Management Plans for Onsite Treatment Systems for clusters that don't specifically require sewers but which have reported problems, i.e., Hope Ranch, some Santa Ynez communities, Los Olivos, Hope Ranch, Casmalia, Toro Canyon, etc. ($200,000 to $600,000).

At Heal the Ocean we are very pleased to see the septic pollution problem is not only recognized by Santa Barbara County but by the state of California! When we formed in 1998, there was no such recognition. But, in 1999, when we initiated the DNA study of Rincon Lagoon (in collaboration with the County) in 1999, former assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson had been told by her stepdaughter that she had been "surfing in sewage" off Rincon. The intrepid Hannah-Beth immediately went down to the Rincon to have a look, and went back to Sacramento to author Assembly Bill 885 for the regulation of the 1.2 million septic systems in the state of California. In some areas, effluent and nitrates have shown up in drinking wells, and septic systems within 600 feet of a watershed have been found to be leaking into that watershed. There are 9,000 septic systems in Santa Barbara County alone.

Heal the Ocean has joined Heal the Bay, Santa Monica, in attending statewide public hearings to support AB 885, which is expected to become law by fall 2006.