Monitoring Well Data For Santa Barbara Waterfront (2012)

In many areas of the City of Santa Barbara – primarily along the waterfront, in the 101 Garden Street underpass corridor, the Cabrillo Plaza, and in the industrial area west of Milpas Street – what lies below the ground is a combination of toxic soils and polluted groundwater. In some cases, the soil has been so polluted that it was taken to a toxic landfill for disposal. Heal the Ocean has been dogging this issue for years, and Helene Gardner, Ph.D. in environmental toxicology (and now a professor at UCSB teaching Environmental Chemistry), helped us get a handle on what pollution is where. Studying the State Water Quality Control Board (SWQCB) GeoTracker website, Helene assembled a chart of monitoring wells and the pollutants that are in them, together with a synopsis as to how much of this problem remained unremedied. 

Helene Gardner came onto staff in 2010 and worked for HTO for a number of years on this issue. HTO executive director Hillary Hauser and Helene Gardner met with Santa Barbara City officials (creek, public works, and water departments) on this issue, and the City’s response was to send us a chore list of things – of items to research and help them with – and they asked us to look for information they couldn’t find. In addition, HTO collaborates with the Regional Water Quality Control Board about the groundwater pollution issue, and we have paid for personnel to work with, the Regional Board staff to enter toxic groundwater/soils data into the State Geotracker system. Today, HTO receives regular reports from the Regional Water Quality Control Board about cleanup orders – some instituted and some finished. Our work provided the ground floor for tackling this pollution problem.