We’ve been working hard with Jacob Tell and Oniracom for many months to bring Heal the Ocean’s website to a place where we can best tell you the news of our progress in combating ocean pollution, and also to involve you, our readers, in this work.
Heal the Ocean has, like many organizations, reassessed our goals in the midst of a challenging economy - and we have made a hard and fast decision to batten down the hatches and focus on the One Big Goal we care about the most: that the ocean is no longer used to dilute human waste. By this we mean that we are now concentrating on the conversion of wastewater, now discharged into the ocean, to reclaimed water, that is usable for irrigation on land. Instead of sewer outfalls depositing our waste, even treated, into the ocean, is a reckless use of not only the ocean, but of a resource that is reusable. Further, we are investigating the cost and feasibility of total conversion of wastewater by reverse osmosis methods, to eliminate all presence of pharmaceuticals and/or bacteria. We are also investigating the use of reclaimed water in fire suppression: instead of putting out fires with drinking water, there are perhaps ways, which we are researching, to pipe reclaimed water to “purple hydrants” for use in fighting the horrendous fires that can occur in the Santa Barbara back country.
To accomplish this change of focus Heal the Ocean has changed staffing in the office so that we can use our financial resources in a strictly budgeted way to get what we want. We welcome Lindsay Hernandez (as our new Office/Events Director and Christi Davis (Administrator) to help us zero in on the supreme goal of eliminating wastewater discharge into the ocean.
To this end, here is where we are:
- In June 2009, Heal the Ocean joined a 10-member Santa Barbara county-wide steering committee to guide an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan (IRWMP) for the allocation of state Proposition 84 funds dedicated to water quality and water conservation. HTO is seeking funding to pay for planning grants, and construction, for the upgrade to tertiary treatment levels - reclaimed water - by both the Carpinteria Sanitary District and Summerland Sanitary District. By these upgrades, these two wastewater plants will be producing recycled water for productive use, rather than putting wastewater into the ocean. (Everyone on the steering committee recognizes state funding is in disarray at the moment, but because these funds are mandated by the public, when California’s budget problems are worked out - which they surely will be at some point - the projects that are of interest to Heal the Ocean and its membership will be represented). Heal the Ocean is the only non-profit environmental group on the IRWMP steering committee, joining the Cachuma Operations & Maintenance Board (COMB) & Cachuma Conservation Release Board (CCRB), the cities of Lompoc, Buellton, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, the Goleta Water District, Montecito Water District, the Central Coast Water Authority and Casmalia Services District.
- Heal the Ocean’s Wastewater Discharge Report (WDR) for the state of California is nearing the finish line - July or August 2009 - when UCSB’s Marine Science Institute will have finished the internet maps to illustrate our five-year compilation of all wastewater discharged into the Pacific Ocean along the California coast, from the Oregon border to Tijuana/San Diego. This WDR report, which will include latitude and longitude, distance from shore and depth of water of wastewater discharges, as well as histories of exceedances (violations), will be used by a newly formed Southern California legal non-profit to promote the preservation of California resources, which includes implementation of the state’s newly formulated Recycled Water Policy.
- We are also keeping our eye on $2.1 million in Proposition 84 funds that have already been allocated to the South Coast Beach Communities Septic to Sewer Project (including Rincon), which will reimburse homeowners 25% of the cost of building the public sewer in these four communities. We have worked hard to get this grant for the project, which is now in the preliminary engineering phase and which will enable the removal of septic systems along 7 miles of coastline along the Santa Barbara south coast, from the Ventura County line to Padaro Lane, near Summerland. To all of you who have come forward with financial help, we are most grateful to you. Please come to Fifth Annual Benefit Concert at the Coral Casino on September 26, 2009, and celebrate with us the progress we have made and the work we will continue to do together. Thank you for helping,
