April 2012

Santa Barbara Channelkeeper News & Events

News and Events

Channelkeeper Settles Sewage Lawsuit with City of Santa Barbara Protecting Water From Agricultural Pollution Local Cities Take Action to Ban Bags MPA Update EPA Releases Fifth Report on Halaco Sampling Results Celebrate Earth Day on April 21st and 22nd Volunteers Needed for Harbor Clean-up May 5th 2012 Blue Water Ball A Big Success! Stream Team April 14th and 15th Become a Channelkeeper Member!

Channelkeeper Settles Sewage Lawsuit with City of Santa Barbara

Sewage spills and pollution of local creeks and beaches caused by leaky sewer pipes will soon become a thing of the past now that Santa Barbara Channelkeeper and the City of Santa Barbara have agreed to settle Channelkeeper's 2011 Clean Water Act lawsuit. In 2009, there were at least 41 sewage spills in Santa Barbara, making the City's sewer system one of the worst-polluting systems of its size on the Central Coast with a spill rate more than three times higher than the California average. In addition to spills, sewage also "exfiltrates" or leaks out of broken sewer pipes and into storm drains that lead to Santa Barbara's creeks and beaches. After trying for a decade to convince the City through outreach, education and advocacy to do what needed to be done to fix its antiquated sewage system, last spring Channelkeeper filed a lawsuit citing numerous violations of the federal Clean Water Act permits the City holds for its sewage and storm drain systems, which prohibit sewage spills and the discharge of anything but stormwater into storm drains. After nearly a year of negotiations, Channelkeeper and the City signed a settlement agreement in late March which commits the City to implement a rigorous and proactive program to upgrade its aging sewer system. The agreement, memorialized in a legally-binding Consent Decree, requires the City to spend more than $26 million over the next five years to improve its operation and maintenance practices, drastically reduce sewage spills, and nearly double the number of miles of sewer pipes it repairs and replaces, with a focus on those that have the highest risk of exfiltration. As part of the agreement, the City will also fund a project to raise awareness, provide training and install Low Impact Development features such as rain gardens on numerous properties throughout Santa Barbara, which will help to further reduce pollution to local creeks and beaches.

Protecting Water From Agricultural Pollution

On March 15th, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board adopted a new set of regulations (commonly referred to as the "Ag Waiver") designed to increase protection of groundwater supplies, streams, rivers, wetlands, and beaches from pollution from irrigated agriculture. Irrigated agriculture is known to be a primary pollution source on the Central Coast with nitrate contamination and toxicity from pesticides being particularly widespread and problematic. The new Ag Waiver requires a small subset (approximately 3%) of the region's

Did You Know?

growers to monitor the runoff that leaves their farms and report the results to the Regional Water Board. The program requires only the largest, highest risk growers in the areas with the most severe water quality problems to meet any significant requirements. The newly adopted monitoring and reporting requirements will likely result in improved water quality as many high risk growers in these areas will now have to demonstrate that their operations are meeting water quality standards. However, the new Ag Waiver was primarily designed to address severe nitrate and toxicity problems in the most severely impaired waterways in the region such as the lower Salinas River and lower Santa Maria River. Due to the new Ag Waiver's limited applicability, it is unlikely that it will result in any additional oversight of agricultural operations in the Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Carpinteria areas, and for many growers it will actually result in fewer requirements. This is highly unfortunate given the existence of many agriculturally polluted streams in the these areas. Even more alarming, as a last minute accommodation to the agricultural industry, the Regional Board eliminated requirements for high-risk growers to achieve targets designed to limit fertilizer application to the amount necessary for crop production. This modification effectively eliminated the only significant measureable and enforceable requirement to protect groundwater supplies from contamination. The adoption of the new Ag Waiver came after more than 3 years of vigorous and contentious debate between agricultural industry representatives and environmental groups and disadvantaged communities, in which Channelkeeper played a central role. The years of debate resulted in extensive concessions to agricultural industry concerns. Despite the fact that only 3% of growers will be affected by the new requirements, strong industry opposition continued up until the bitter end and it is expected that they will continue their opposition through a petition and appeals processes.

You Could Serve on the Sanctuary Advisory Council

Just off our coast is the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) one of just thirteen national marine sanctuaries in the US. The Sanctuary Advisory Council advises sanctuary management on topics such as resource protection, research, education, and outreach programs and is currently seeking applicants for eleven seats. Open seats include Tourism; Recreational fishing; Chumash Community; Education; Business; and Public at large. Please visit the CINMS website to learn more.

Local Cities Take Action to Ban Bags

More than 40 jurisdictions in California have passed ordinances to curb the impacts of plastic bag litter on our creeks, beaches and roadsides. Channelkeeper has advocated for years for Santa Barbara to enact a strong local bag reduction ordinance, and it looks like they may finally follow suit. At a lengthy hearing on March 13th, the Santa Barbara City Council voted 5-2 to direct its Ordinance Committee to draft a bag ordinance that draws from those passed by many other California municipalities by banning plastic bags and placing a nominal charge on paper bags. There is still a long road ahead before the ordinance is enacted, but Channelkeeper applauds the City of Santa Barbara for finally moving in the right direction. In other local bag news, Carpinteria and Ojai recently adopted bag ordinances. Carpinteria's ordinance bans both paper and plastic bags at all large retailers. Unfortunately, Carpinteria's ordinance is being challenged for banning plastic bags at restaurants by the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition (SPBC), a lobby group representing plastic bag manufacturers, on the grounds that state retail code preempts local legislation. The SPBC also challenged Santa Cruz County on these grounds, but the case was settled when the County exempted restaurants from their ordinance. Also, at the start of the spring quarter, UCSB students celebrated their own "Day without a Bag" event. The UCSB bookstore enacted its own voluntary ban on single-use plastic bags, making UCSB the first UC campus to take decisive action to decrease its use of plastic bags.

MPA Update

Southern California's 36 new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are now four months old! This means fish and other animals in specially identified places like the reefs off of Naples, Isla Vista, and Point Conception have had four months to grow and reproduce in these underwater safe havens. But the work to maintain this protection hasn't ended. Channelkeeper joined a number of environmental organizations throughout California last month in Sacramento to encourage our legislators to take positions on issues that better protect our coasts, ocean, and marine life, including asking them to continue supporting the state-wide implementation of the Marine Life Protection Act. Channelkeeper is also providing input on California's Ocean Plan to ensure that water quality standards in MPAs are enforced. Closer to home, Channelkeeper needs your help with MPA protection, so please volunteer for our MPA Watch monitoring program! MPA Watch volunteers record and track human activities in and adjacent to Santa Barbara's MPAs, collecting important information to help interpret how fish populations respond to MPAs and to inform better management of these MPAs. Becoming an MPA Watch volunteer is easy and fun. Channelkeeper will be hosting a volunteer training workshop on Monday, April 23rd at 5:30pm at the Channelkeeper office (714 Bond Ave., Santa Barbara). If you want to attend or learn more about MPA Watch, please email or call us at 805.563.3377 ext. 2.

EPA Releases Fifth Report on Halaco Sampling Results

On March 15th, EPA released the fifth in a series of reports summarizing the results of soil, sediment, and water testing conducted in 2009-2010 as part of the remedial investigation for the Halaco Superfund Site in Oxnard. This fifth report describes the testing of groundwater and surface water at the Site, including locations in the Oxnard Industrial Drain (OID), Ormond Beach lagoon, and adjacent Nature Conservancy properties. The report confirms that Halaco's operations contaminated shallow groundwater underlying the area (which is of poor quality and not used for drinking water or irrigation due to other sources of contamination as well), though their operations have had little or no impact on the deeper Oxnard aquifer, which is used as a source of drinking water. The primary contaminants from Halaco to groundwater are metals, chlorides, and ammonia. The report also concludes that Halaco's wastes currently have little or no effect on water quality in the OID and lagoon, but did degrade water quality in the past when Halaco actively discharged wastewater at the Site. Next steps are for EPA to work with the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Department of Toxic Substances Control to determine whether contaminated groundwater at the Halaco site requires remediation. EPA will also consider the need for additional groundwater testing to better define the northern extent of groundwater contamination, conduct a formal "feasibility study" comparing clean-up options, and develop a proposal for any needed groundwater clean-up. EPA is also continuing to evaluate the feasibility and cost of using Halaco's wastes as a raw material in the production of cement and developing clean-up standards for contaminated soils and sediments at the site. EPA will seek and consider public input as it evaluates clean-up options and develops its clean-up proposal. Channelkeeper has hired Geosyntec to help us review, analyze and translate into layperson's terms these and other technical reports generated by EPA as part of the Superfund process. Channelkeeper will leverage Geosyntec's

technical assistance to help local citizens understand EPA's findings and engage them in EPA's decision-making process related to the clean-up of the site.

Celebrate the Earth at the SB Earth Day Festival April 21st and 22nd
Celebrate the Earth at the annual Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival, a two-day extravaganza on Saturday, April 21st from 11 am-7 pm and Sunday, April 22nd from 11 am-6 pm at Alameda Park. The festival's theme this year is "Mobilize," highlighting the power of grassroots action in protecting and preserving the environment. Stop by Channelkeeper's booth to learn about and take action to support our current initiatives to protect and restore the Santa Barbara Channel and its watersheds. Channelkeeper is seeking volunteers to help staff our booth at the festival; please email or call us at 805.563.3377 ext. 5 if you can help. We hope to see you there!

Volunteers Needed for Harbor Clean-up

On Saturday, May 5th from 8 am-12 noon, the Santa Barbara Waterfront Department will host its sixth annual "Operation Clean Sweep" clean-up of debris from the harbor seafloor. Please join Channelkeeper in volunteering your time to help with this important effort. Volunteers can provide dock support topside or, if SCUBA-certified, participate as a diver to retrieve sunken trash from the harbor bottom. This year we will target the dock fingers "E" through "H" in Marina One. Divers must supply their own equipment, but Channelkeeper will provide tanks and the Waterfront Department will provide donuts, coffee and water. Email or call us at 805.583.3377 ext.2 if you would like to participate in this fun community clean-up.

2012 Blue Water Ball A Big Success!

Channelkeeper's 12th annual Blue Water Ball fundraising gala was a huge success, raising nearly $70,000 for our work to protect and restore the Santa Barbara Channel and its watersheds! At the event, which took place on March 17th at the Santa Barbara Woman's Club, we celebrated Channelkeeper's many recent victories for clean water and were treated to an inspiring keynote address from Katrina Rogers, Ph.D., Provost and Senior Vice President of Fielding Graduate University. We also debuted this short video about Channelkeeper, and recognized Chris Harlin as our Volunteer of the Year. Many thanks to all who attended and contributed to making this one of our best events ever. Thanks also to Katrina Rogers, our masterful Master of Ceremonies Geoff Green, our dedicated volunteers, and our event sponsors: MarBorg Industries, Forester Media, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Foundation, Citrix Online, the Coastal Fund, Fielding Graduate University, Montecito Bank & Trust, Patagonia, Environment Now and UCSB. We look forward to seeing you at next year's Blue Water Ball!

Stream Team April 14th and 15th

Stream Team is Channelkeeper's volunteerbased water quality monitoring program. Every month, volunteers join Channelkeeper staff to test for common water quality parameters at numerous sites in the Ventura River and Goleta Slough watersheds. Note: Special Ventura Stream Team predawn sampling times! Ventura Stream Team - April 14th - This month Ventura Stream Team volunteers will collect samples in two shifts. The first shift will meet before dawn at 4:30 AM. The second shift will meet at 12:30 PM. We are conducting diurnal (twice daily) monitoring in order to measure the chemical impacts of algae growth in the Ventura River. Volunteers must RSVP to ben@sbck.org as morning and afternoon slots are limited. Volunteers for the morning shift must have received training at a prior event. Goleta Stream Team - April 15th - Goleta Stream Team will meet as usual at 10 AM. Visit www.stream-team.org for more information.

Become a Channelkeeper Member!

Become a Channelkeeper Member! Your support for Channelkeeper's efforts is needed now more than ever. Become a member of the Channelkeeper crew today with your taxdeductible donation. You'll be investing in clean water and healthy communities along the Santa Barbara Channel today and for future generations. With your membership, you will receive our regular newsletters, news updates and action alerts, invitations to special Channelkeeper events and fun volunteer opportunities, and a free Channelkeeper sticker. All new donors contributing $50 or more can also receive a Channelkeeper t-shirt, and for donations of $250 or more, quarterly issues of Waterkeeper magazine. Sign up today by calling 805.563.3377 ext. 4 or emailing us.