Santa Barbara is home to some of the most spectacular beaches in the world. Unfortunately, high concentrations of bacteria in the water all too often force City officials to post notices warning beachgoers that it may not be safe to swim.
 
In 1999, Santa Barbara led the nation in beach closures and advisories due to bacterial contamination. The ensuing years have shown moderate decreases in the number of beach closings and advisories, but we still have unacceptably high numbers of beach closure and advisory days at Santa Barbara County beaches. While we know that the cause of nearly all these beach advisories is elevated bacteria levels in the water, the sources of most of the bacterial pollution remains unknown. Channelkeeper has long suspected that a major culprit is the City of Santa Barbara's aging sewage collection system, and we've been investigating the issue in attempts to pinpoint the problem and formulate solutions.
 
Our investigations have revealed that much of the City of Santa Barbara's sewer system was constructed between 1900 and 1960 and is made of vitrified clay pipe, which cracks more easily than the PVC plastic piping used today. As a result, many of the City's sewage pipes are deteriorating, and cracks and holes in the pipes are allowing substantial amounts of rainwater and/or groundwater to enter. This often overwhelms the capacity of the pipes and the sewage treatment plant and leads to back-ups and sewage spills. Sewage may also leak out of broken pipes and into the groundwater, potentially enabling bacteria to migrate to the ocean and contribute to bacterial pollution at our beaches. Santa Barbara's sewage system has also been plagued by severe capacity-related problems that caused chronic spills in low-lying areas such as the Harbor and Santa Barbara's east side, particularly during heavy rains.
 
Raw sewage can contain a variety of microbes that cause everything from sinus, ear and stomach infections to cholera, hepatitis, and dysentery. Sewage spills pose a public health threat because they expose people to viruses and pathogens contained in sewage, which can make people sick. They also hurt our local economy by causing beach closures, damage to public and private property, and contamination of shellfish beds and fisheries. (For more information on sewage spills, see Channelkeeper's Sanitary Sewer Overflow Fact Sheet.)

 

Unfortunately, it appears that the frequency of sewage overflows in Santa Barbara is increasing, to the point where we have the highest rate of spills on the entire Central Coast. Available information indicates that, from 2005-2009, there have been 154 sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) from the City's sewage collection system (23 in 2005, 24 in 2006, 31 in 2207, 35 in 2008, and 41 in 2009), releasing 285,000 gallons of raw sewage into the environment. This does not include the additional 3,600 gallons of sewage released from 54 spills from sewer laterals, the pipes connecting plumbing in homes and commercial buildings to the public sewer mains, which are not owned by the City but are private property.

The problem could actually be even more severe, as our investigations have also demonstrated that the City has actually failed to report some sewage spills that have occurred. According to a survey conducted by US EPA in 2004, the median number of spills for California sewage systems is approximately 4 spills/100 miles of sewer pipe/year, and well-run systems experience between 0 and 2 spills/100 miles/year. Santa Barbara's rate in 2009 was 15 spills/100 miles, or nearly 4 times worse than the average California sewage collection system.
 
Channelkeeper is working hard to compel the City of Santa Barbara to address the serious problems with its sewer system, and we've made good progress. In 2006, we were instrumental in getting the Santa Barbara City Council to enact a sewer lateral inspection and repair ordinance and an associated rebate program to incentivize inspections. These actions were necessary because many sewer laterals in Santa Barbara are broken or cracked due to age, root intrusion or other problems, and faulty sewer laterals can leak sewage into the ground and can also allow rain and groundwater to enter the sewage collection system, causing sewage spills. 

The rebate program created by the City allows owners of single-family through three-unit properties to, on a first-come first-served basis, receive a rebate of up to $150 for an inspection of their sewer lateral and/or a rebate for half the cost of a lateral repair or replacement up to $2,000. City Council initially allocated $220,000 to the rebate program for FY 2007-08, but it has been so popular and successful that, with Channelkeeper's support, they allocated an additional $240,000 for the remainder of the fiscal year and, for FY 08-09, Council increased the program’s allocation to $450,000 and authorized the assignment of two additional staff to run it. Channelkeeper encourages you to be a leader and help protect our creeks and beaches from pollution caused by sewage spills by getting your sewer lateral inspected today, and save money by taking advantage of the City's incentive program. Please call the local sewage treatment plant at 568-1010 or visit http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/Resident/Licenses_Permits/SLIP/Section_5.htm to find out how.

Channelkeeper's advocacy was also successful in convincing the City of Santa Barbara to install and connect additional sewage pipes to handle high flows during rainstorms, which has relieved bottlenecks that were causing frequent sewage spills on Santa Barbara's East Side. We continue to lobby City officials to step up their efforts to repair and rehabilitate their sewer mains - their current program of replacing or rehabilitating one percent of the sewage collection system per year is simply not enough.

Channelkeeper is also continuing to monitor the rate and severity of sewage spills in our area and the performance of the local sewage treatment plant in removing pollutants from sewage prior to discharging it to the ocean. We review discharge and sewage spill reports submitted by sewage treatment plants that discharge into the Santa Barbara Channel, and review and provide comments and testimony on their permits when they come up for review and reissuance by the Regional Water Board.


Click here read about one of Channelkeeper's many successes in identifying and eliminating sewage discharges to local creeks.