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Data can provide powerful insights to support environmental change. Channelkeeper regularly collects data related to the composition, quality, and availability of our water resources. Our team uses this data to measure critical threats facing our waters, to support decision-makers in their efforts to protect local waterways, and to raise community awareness and involvement in protecting our water resources. This science-based approach is one that helps us keep local waters clean and that also distinguishes us as a data-driven water quality organization.

Since 2001, Channelkeeper has leveraged citizen science to monitor water quality in local watersheds. Our flagship volunteer monitoring program, Stream Team, is one of the longest running and largest citizen water quality monitoring programs in the State. Stream Team collects baseline water quality data every month at up to 43 sites in our region. Over 1,400 community volunteers have participated in the Stream Team program, all trained to follow State approved quality control protocols. Stream Team data is uploaded to the State’s California Environmental Data Exchange Network. The data has been used as lines of evidence to support multiple listings on the State’s 303(d) Impaired Water Bodies List as well as to support development of Total Maximum Daily Load programs in several local watersheds. Regulatory agencies regularly utilize the data we collect to inform and prioritize their pollution prevention and restoration efforts.

Technological innovations in the field of water quality monitoring have enhanced Channelkeeper’s ability to monitor local watersheds. Specifically, we’ve integrated the use of deployable sensors and data loggers to collect continuous data for various applications. In the Ventura River watershed, Channelkeeper deploys dissolved oxygen data loggers each summer to monitor the water quality effects of algae growth and diminished stream flow. This data was recently used in an evaluation of minimum flow thresholds necessary to preserve water quality for endangered steelhead trout.

We also use deployable data logging devices, such as pressure transducers and conductivity sensors, to document and track illicit discharges emanating from the municipal storm drain system. In 2012, this technique helped us monitor the daily, illegal discharge of industrial brine waste into a local watershed in the City of Goleta. This discovery led to intervention of local and state authorities and the eventual elimination of the pollution source.

In the aftermath of the Plains All American oil spill in 2015, the existence of natural oil seeps that regularly oil beaches off the Santa Barbara coastline led to uncertainty regarding the source of oil on fouled beaches. We launched our Tar Ball Monitoring Program to establish a quantitative baseline dataset of natural oil seep fouling that resource agencies could utilize in the future when evaluating both whether to mobilize clean-up efforts and what appropriate clean-up endpoints should be. To develop this baseline, we conduct quarterly surveys of 14 local beaches along the coastline and document the extent, magnitude, and frequency of natural oiling.

Channelkeeper also helps other agencies gather data. Aboard the RV-Channelkeeper, our 31-foot research vessel, our team has assisted the Department of Public Health with biotoxin monitoring, the Department of Fish and Wildlife with Marine Protected Area compliance monitoring, and University of California Santa Barbara researchers with everything from ocean acidification monitoring, biological surveys, and e-DNA sampling of eelgrass beds.

Data collection and scientific research is integral to Channelkeeper’s efforts to protect and restore the Santa Barbara Channel and its watersheds. This has helped us successfully champion stronger policies that better protect our water resources, clean up pollution hot spots, educate our community, and stop illegal discharges into the Santa Barbara Channel and its tributaries. It’s allowed us to better serve our community by supporting our environmental advocacy with quantitative measurements and has informed every aspect of our clean water work.

Plastic film – also known as plastic film packaging – is soft, lightweight polyethylene packaging used for grocery, bread, zip-lock, and dry-cleaning bags. It’s also used as a wrapper around products such as paper plates, napkins, bathroom tissue, and diapers.

Many recyclers don’t accept film plastics because the material is often contaminated or torn in the recycling bin, thereby losing its value. Film plastics such as plastic bags also tend to jam up sorting conveyor belts at recycling facilities, causing the machines to be shut down.

However, Santa Barbara has a vibrant film plastics recycling program that was launched by Sasha Ablitt, owner of Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners. After taking over her family’s dry-cleaning business, Ablitt noticed the mounting plastic waste that the company was generating from single-use garment bags, and she was determined to find a more environmentally friendly solution. She discovered a handful of companies that accept bags and convert them into plastic pellets. She began gathering film plastic and purchased a machine to bale and compress it before sending on for recycling. The film plastic is picked up by a company called Trex, that melts it down and mixes it with virgin plastic to create home and garden products, including outdoor decking materials.

In 2018, after several years of recycling her business’s film plastic, Ablitt realized the program could also serve as a collection site for the public. Santa Barbara Channelkeeper and the Community Environmental Council (CEC) partnered with Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners to provide additional support and create more public drop off centers. Channelkeeper and CEC—with the help of volunteers—hand-sort the plastic and perform quality control checks to ensure that the materials are high-quality and able to be recycled. Since this program became open to the public, 12,000 pounds of film plastic have been recycled.

At the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, the film plastic recycling project was temporarily suspended. However, as businesses began to re-open so did the film plastic project, but on an appointment-only basis. Drop off centers at Santa Barbara Channelkeeper and CEC offices as well as at Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners are again accepting film plastic for recycling. Ablitt’s is hosting film plastic drop off events that you can register for by signing up to be on their film plastic email list. CEC and Channelkeeper serve as additional drop off locations and are available by appointment only. More information for CEC and Ablitt’s drop offs is available on their websites. To set up an appointment for drop off at Channelkeeper’s office send us an email at [email protected].

From now on, there will also be training requirements to participate in the program, in order to avoid sorting errors and contamination issues. Community members will now have to sort their own film plastic with a trained volunteer or staff person, and will have to take home any plastic waste that is not accepted for recycling. We greatly appreciate everyone’s efforts to recycle and your commitment to doing it properly.

What you can recycle:

Retail, carryout, newspaper, dry cleaning bags (clean, dry, and free of receipts and clothes hangers)
Bread bags or tortilla bags turned INSIDE OUT and shaken free of crumbs
Plastic shipping envelopes (remove labels/tape as best you can), bubble wrap, and air pillows (deflate)
Product wrap on cases of water/soda bottles, paper towels, napkins, disposable cups, bathroom tissue, diapers, and female sanitary products
Furniture and electronic wrap
Film plastics with a recycle number 2 and 4
White Amazon mailers
Clean ziplock bags (remove zipper tabs)

PRO TIP: If the plastic stretches with your thumb and rips in a jagged edge, it is recyclable. If it crinkles and rips straight, it is not recyclable.

Another tip that a community member shared with us that has helped with the sorting is to keep plastic that you weren’t sure if it is accepted in a separate bag from all the good clean and dry film plastic.

**April 2021** Channelkeeper has resumed film plastic collection at our office.

Please note that all drop off locations are now available by appointment only. Please email [email protected] if you would like to schedule a drop-off at Channelkeeper’s office. To sign up to receive info about film plastic collection events at Ablitt’s, please visit https://ablitts.com/filmplastic/. We are also asking community members to come prepared to sort their own film plastic with a staff or trained volunteer and to take home any plastic not accepted.

Science Supports Our Clean Water Work

The 411 on Film Plastic Recycling in Santa Barbara