Climate Change and Wastewater Infrastructure

HTO has been researching the potential impacts of sea level rise (SLR) on wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). All WWTPs are built next to water for ease of disposal, whether ocean, creek, river or wetlands. Hurricane Sandy (2012) gave us a preview of the threat that climate change poses to wastewater infrastructure: 13 billion gallons of untreated and partially treated sewage was released from wastewater treatment plants in the wake of intense rain from the hurricane.

Heal the Ocean has been working to focus attention on this issue, and the need for wastewater treatment plants to plan for adaptation to rising sea levels and more intense storms. We provided input to the City of Santa Barbara on its Climate Action Plan, recommending that they treat this issue with the urgency that it requires, and we are also making input to the State’s Safeguarding California Plan to ensure that it adequately covers wastewater vulnerability.

HTO’s chief concern about Sea Level Rise is the immediate need to protect coastal wastewater infrastructure. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy inundated wastewater treatment plants on the East Coast, releasing billions of gallons of raw sewage into towns and beaches, and into the ocean. The Goleta Sanitary District (GSD), on the Santa Barbara County shoreline, has already sustained significant stormwater assault. In January 2019, the GSD Vault, the critical infrastructure located on Goleta Beach that houses the connection of the outfall pipe to the treatment plant, was undermined during a high tide event and had to be shored up by emergency placement of boulders.