The Groundwater Connection

Heal the Ocean has been supporting a three-year investigation by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) of the shallow groundwater beneath the city of Santa Barbara near Mission Creek and along the waterfront. This project began in Fall, 2005, and has already resulted in some hugely significant findings.

During the week of December 5, 2005, USGS scientists found high fecal bacteria counts in one of the groundwater wells next to the beach at Santa Barbara's waterfront, at Skater's Park on Cabrillo Blvd. The fecal bacteria included enterococcus and e. coli. These results suggest that fecal pollutants may be transferred into the ocean through shallow groundwater discharge.

The USGS scientists will be taking more samples and DNA tests will be performed. It should be noted that the water being sampled from these wells is not accessible to the frequently blamed pollution sources - homeless encampments in particular.
The implications are enormous, not only for Santa Barbara, but for all coastal communities which may now need to examine and consider shallow groundwater as an important mechanism for transporting pollutants to the ocean - whether from septic leachfields, faulty sewer laterals or cracked sewer mains.

The USGS work in Santa Barbara is "state-of-the-art" technology that has not yet been widely enacted or used. Stanford University did some preliminary investigations in 2004 and issued a news statement that groundwater transport of pollutants to the ocean was "likely."

Heal the Ocean has been hammering on this issue for years. Beginning in 1999 with the yearly financial help of The Ann Jackson Family Foundation, we participated (with Drew Bohan of Channelkeeper) in the hiring of a researcher to examine the City's sewer maintenance records. We also hired a leak detection expert to view video sewer inspections in areas we identified as problematic, and we searched for a reputable hydrologic/drilling company (unsuccessfully) that would get monitoring wells into certain locations based on careful study of maps of the areas.

Finally, when the City agreed to hire the USGS in a three-year investigation of groundwater beneath the city, Heal the Ocean leaped to the chance to support this project. We hired grantwriter Stephanie Jamgochian to contribute to the USGS work, and in September 2005, we handed the City of Santa Barbara a check for $30,000 to support the first year of the USGS investigation. These funds were generously granted to us by the Orange County Community Foundation (Marisla), $25,000, and the Andrew H. Burnett Foundation ($5,000).

The study, "Microbial Contamination of Urban Streams and Ocean Beaches" (MCUSOB), is a collaboration with the city of Santa Barbara, the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and HTO.

By September 2005, the USGS team had installed 13 monitoring wells into the water table beneath Santa Barbara, and had performed a 24-hour sample collection on each of the 13 wells. To date, all of the wells have been sampled at least once for a full 24-hour period and a complete set of analytical results will be compiled during Year Two of the project.

Heal the Ocean believes the MCUSOB project is applying cutting-edge technology to an investigation that, when finished, will have vast implications not only for Santa Barbara, but for every coastal community in the nation - and possibly the world. Stephanie Jamgochian is currently working to raise at least $50,000 for HTO to contribute to Year Two of the USGS study, during which DNA tests will be performed on the water samples from both monitoring wells and Mission Creek.

Meanwhile, we continue our work on the potential, if not likely, sources of groundwater pollution - septic systems, sewer pipes and laterals. Mindful of what these findings may mean to homeowners financially, we continue to conduct, facilitate and oversee cost/feasibility studies, area by area.