This Heal the Ocean newsletter is a Special Edition Newsletter about the Rincon Septic to Sewer project, which is a 15-year, often amusing but hugely difficult saga of a group of citizens coming together to take on a complicated environmental issue.

In 1998, HTO took up the challenge of getting septic systems removed from the Rincon, a world-class surfing area. Working with the Carpinteria Sanitary District (CSD), this project became the massive South Coast Beach Communities Septic to Sewer Project which included 130 beach homes strung along a thin strand of coastline, in areas of high groundwater and much of it bordered by a salt marsh preserve.

This Newsletter is a free telling of an environmental battle that highlights and explains how we not only got past overwhelming funding issues, but also the challenging situations we got into along the way.

All of the help from the community has led to the victory we celebrate today - septic systems have been removed from seven miles of Santa Barbara County’s south coast.

Everyone who helped achieve this impossible dream can take pleasure in knowing they have had a hand in leaving an important environmental legacy to Santa Barbara.