The August 27, 1998 public demonstration at the Santa Barbara County administration building that gave rise to Heal the Ocean. Photo by Rafael Maldonado/News-Press
Heal the Ocean (HTO) was formed in August 1998 in Santa Barbara, California, in response to the closing of local beaches due to bacteria. Its original organizers are Hillary Hauser, a journalist who has covered marine topics – both internationally and in Santa Barbara – for over 40 years, and Jeff Young, a practicing attorney in Santa Barbara who once owned an oyster farm that was polluted out of business in the late 1980s. It is a citizens’ action group that began with Hauser’s newspaper editorial, published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on August 9, 1998, called “Another Day at the Beach?” The piece, which is sharply critical of water quality regulators who are not doing their job, prompted a huge outpouring of emotional support and calls for action within the community. In response, a public demonstration took place at the Santa Barbara County administration building on August 27, 1998, in support of clean waters and clean beaches, with this community outcry giving rise to Heal the Ocean.
Because surfers had reached out to Hillary for help with the polluted water at the Rincon, a world-renowned surfing destination, in Santa Barbara County, HTO first tackled the septic systems there. We were the first environmental organization in the country to do DNA testing in the environment in order to identify the origins of contamination, which we did while bureaucrats and the public argued about the sources of pollution at Rincon. Moving on from the DNA study, HTO then raised funds for sewer engineering studies, not only for Rincon but for the neighboring communities up the coast. The South Coast Beach Communities Septic-to-Sewer project, as it came to be called, took 15 years to complete, and in the end, removed septic systems from 7 miles of the Santa Barbara south coast. HTO received many commendations for this work.
Since then, HTO has successfully worked to upgrade wastewater treatment plants, to initiate recycled water studies and plans, to initiate groundwater studies, with information going into the State Geotracker system, and to inaugurate Styrofoam recycling/repurposing, together with MarBorg Industries Santa Barbara. Our doggy bag sponsorship program sends $20K-$30K per year to the City and County of Santa Barbara to buy doggy bags, our beach cleanup programs have resulted in miles of clean beaches, and this is just a part of the list.
The enthusiasm of HTO supporters has made this success possible.
Ruston Slager, Early Organizer
Heal the Ocean would not be here were it not for Ruston Slager, a longtime surfer and ocean lover, who read Hillary’s editorial “Another Day at the Beach?” and called her to say he was going to organize a demonstration on the Santa Barbara County Administration Building on a Tuesday, while the Board of Supervisors were in session. Hillary’s reaction was, “fine great, go ahead,” and said she couldn’t attend because she was on her way to the East Coast for a family reunion. However, as fate would have it, she was not only talked into attending the demonstration, but she agreed to speak. While Ruston began getting the word out, organizing a PA system, and attending to other details, Hillary came up with a name for our organization, printed 1,000 bumper stickers and 1,000 flyers with our 5-point Mission Statement (which has stayed the same all these years). In a matter of days, on August 28, 1998, Hillary and local attorney Jeff Young went to the County building and on the front steps, announced that Heal the Ocean was born.
Ruston Slager
