For nearly 70 years, Goleta West Sanitary District has provided wastewater collection, treatment, and street sweeping services for residents and businesses in the Western Goleta Valley and Isla Vista. Governed by an elected board of directors, the District serves approximately 6,100 connections to over 41,000 people.
Our current board members have been elected at-large, which means voters across the entire District elected all five board members. This year, however, we are moving to a by-district election model to comply with the California Voting Rights Act. Through this process, we have divided the District into five smaller districts of similar population size and a board member will be elected from within each district. The new districts will be in place for the 2024 & 2026 elections.
The Regional Water Quality Control Board determined that the spill of approximately 1.07 million gallons of untreated wastewater impacted beach recreation and posed a potential risk of harm to human and aquatic health.
The cause of the spill was external corrosion on a section of underground pipe that may have been damaged during installation and not readily detectable and the District did not delay maintenance or cause the spill through negligence.
Once it learned of the spill, Goleta West Sanitary District took action to stop and contain the spill, and provided timely, required notification to Santa Barbara County Public Health and appropriate regulatory agencies.
Steps taken since the spill have proactively addressed unforeseen issues that originally led to the spill (see Action Plan below aimed to provide a long-term solution to corrosive soils where the existing pipe runs). Even before the spill, Goleta West had been assessing the condition of its entire collections system to identify potential vulnerabilities and implement proactive maintenance.
The Regional Water Quality Control Board regulates and enforces wastewater spills through a progressive enforcement framework and applies an Administrative Civil Liability for violations based on a multi-step penalty calculation. This Settlement Agreement is formal administrative enforcement that the Goleta West Sanitary District and the RWQCB Prosecution Team have stipulated to after the agency’s investigations and the parties’ negotiations.
To determine civil penalty amounts, RWQCB considers a number of factors: potential harm from the spill to the beneficial uses of impacted waterways; degree of toxicity of spilled wastewater; degree of discharger’s culpability; discharger’s voluntary cleanup and post-spill cooperation with the Regional Board; length of spill and volume; and additional factors.
RWQCB’s Prosecution Team recommends a civil penalty of $1.55 million with a Supplemental Environmental Project that will offset this penalty; Goleta West will use the penalty to fund the Santa Barbara County Point of Entry and Point of Use Pilot Project, which will provide well water sampling for drinking water quality with a priority to provide access to safe drinking water in underrepresented and disadvantaged communities within Santa Barbara County.
The project was considered after Goleta West had proposed several other potential environmental restoration ideas that were ineligible. This project is eligible and aligns with the agency’s core value and top priority of “the human right to water,” which prioritizes safe, clean, affordable and accessible water for human consumption, cooking and sanitation.
Since the February 2024 spill, Goleta West Sanitary District has taken significant steps to reduce risk of future incidents in coordination with numerous agencies and stakeholders.
Prior to the spill, in November 2022, the District had proactively engaged an engineering firm to complete an assessment of the District’s force mains as part of its routine infrastructure maintenance efforts. The engineering firm was drafting the final condition assessment report when the February Spill occurred. The condition assessment tentatively concluded the pipe was in “good condition” and the pipe was in its 46th year of an 80-year lifespan. With the failure, Goleta West expanded the scope of the condition assessment, implemented several more assessments, numerous actions have been taken to further findings in light of the spill and deployment of pipe-assessment technologies, and the expanded assessment report has since been adopted.
Since the spill, many more proactive steps have been taken to upgrade and rehabilitate the collections system to reduce the risk of future spills. Additionally, upgraded systems have been put in place to better detect spills and enhance spill readiness in the areas of response and communication. These actions are voluntary and go above and beyond regulatory requirements to respond to the spill.
Voluntary actions since the spill
- Performed updated pressure testing to confirm integrity of repaired force main
- Completed Compliance Evaluation Inspection guiding post-spill best practices
- Upgraded flowmetering and improved alarm systems for spill detection
- Replaced all removed air release valve adapters along force main
- Completed expanded force main condition assessments to inform action plan
- Engaged engineers for recommended force main rehabilitation
- Updated force main maintenance plan to inspect integrity more frequently with state-of-the-art technology
- Identified capital improvement funds to support rehabilitation program
- Improved coordination of mutual aid assistance for spill mitigation among agency partners
- Updated and extended collaborative communication plan with community partners
- Engaged industry experts for above standard compliance initiatives and organization support, including climate resiliency