12 Year History of Santa Barbara Channelkeeper Research, Outreach and Advocacy Efforts on Santa Barbara s Sewage Problems

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1 12 Year History of Santa Barbara Channelkeeper Research, Outreach and Advocacy Efforts on Santa Barbara s Sewage Problems November 2000 Santa Barbara Channelkeeper (SBCK) sent a letter to the City of Santa Barbara requesting access to its records related to smoke testing, maintenance and slip lining of sewer pipes, a map of areas where the City has inspected sewer pipes, notice letters for illegal downspout connections to the sewer, and other information. December 2000 SBCK went on a ride-along with City wastewater crew and sent a follow up letter asking for additional information and to conduct field visits to learn how the City inspects and maintains sewer lines, in particular through smoke testing and closed circuit television (CCTV). January SBCK sent a letter to the City s sewage collection system manager requesting access to a 1983 study on inflow and infiltration, documents on collection system maintenance, dye testing, spill reports and other records. January 2001 SBCK traveled to the Regional Water Quality Control Board headquarters in San Luis Obispo to review sewage spill reports and related documents submitted by the City. February 2001 SBCK Executive Director took a tour of the El Estero wastewater treatment plant and met with the plant manager to discuss matters related to sewage system management. May 2001 SBCK sent a letter to the City s sewage collection system manager requesting additional information about spill reporting and illegal hook-ups to the sewer system as well as other documents related to sewer system management. November 2001 SBCK requested a meeting with the Harbor Operations Manager to obtain more information about frequent sewage spills at the harbor and City staff s protocols to report on and sample after spills. March 2002 SBCK sent a letter to the City s collection system manager outlining various concerns and questions relating to exfiltration, wet weather spills related to inflow and infiltration and insufficient capacity, repair and replacement of sewer mains, spill reporting and other related issues. We then met with the Collection System Manager and Public Works Director to discuss these concerns and ways the City can and should be addressing them. November 2002 SBCK and Heal the Ocean retained American Leak Detectors (ALD) to conduct a study to determine whether Santa Barbara s sewage spills and leaking pipes are contributing to bacterial contamination and beach closures. ALD reviewed videotapes taken by City staff of certain sewer lines that were known to experience substantial inflow and infiltration during rain events. SBCK also reviewed City videotapes of sewer pipes and observed cracks and holes in numerous pipes. ALD confirmed SBCK s theory that if water gets into sewer pipes during rain events, it is likely leaking OUT of pipes during dry weather. 1

2 April 2003 SBCK sent a letter to the collection system manager asking for access to sewer pipes to videotape certain sections of sewer pipe and to take samples in city wells. We also requested information to inform our investigation of the problem, including a 2002 inflow and infiltration study commissioned by the City, recent spill reports, dye testing results, and other related information. May 2003 SBCK staff and Board member Steve Dunn met with City officials to discuss our concerns related to excessive sewage spills, incomplete reporting of spills, exfiltration of sewage from leaky pipes to creeks and beaches, repair and replacement of the many old and broken pipes throughout the city, and other related issues. June 2003 At a follow-up meeting between SBCK and City officials on June 25, we further discussed our various concerns with the sewage system. The City agreed to (1) allow us review the City s draft inflow and infiltration study; (2) allow us access to wells so we could test for bacteria underground; (3) look into the cost of conducting a test to determine whether the large pipe under Cabrillo Blvd. is leaking; (4) draft an ordinance requiring inspection of sewer laterals; and (5) encourage a research group to focus its bacteria source tracking research on Santa Barbara to assess whether bacteria showing up in creeks and beaches is of human origin (thus proving exfiltration is occurring). August 2003 SBCK met with Mayor Marty Blum, City Council Member Iya Falcone, Wastewater Agency Manager Bob Roebuck, and Heal the Ocean s Hillary Hauser to further address our concerns. The City reneged on its promise to let us review the inflow and infiltration study draft, but agreed to re-double its efforts to do the other things it agreed to do in our previous meeting. October 2003 SBCK made a presentation to the Regional Water Board about Santa Barbara s history of under-reporting sewer spills. Several local residents testified about spills in their neighborhoods that the City failed to report. October 2003 SBCK obtained the inflow and infiltration study that the City had been withholding after threatening litigation. December 2003 SBCK sent a Public Records Act request to the City Public Works Department requesting, among others, all City records pertaining to stoppage reports, spill reports, illegal hook-ups, smoke testing data, proposed capital projects to address the frequent spills on Spring Street, and City policy for spill reporting and response. December 2003 SBCK retained an engineering consultant to conduct a review and analysis of the draft and final versions of the City s inflow and infiltration report, concluding that in comparison to the draft version, the final version makes it much more difficult for the layperson to understand how bad the condition of the sewage collection system really is. January 2004 SBCK staff met with two of the three incoming City Councilpersons (Das Williams and Helene Schneider) and shared with them a draft letter outlining SBCK s numerous concerns relating to the City s sewage spills and other sewage contamination issues. Informally, we told both of them that SBCK planned to initiate litigation that summer if the City failed to take any meaningful action by then. 2

3 May SBCK staff met with the wastewater treatment plant manager and other City staff to discuss a proposed sewer lateral inspection program and other concerns related to collection system management. July 2004 SBCK retained an engineering consultant to review spill report spreadsheets we created based on our review of city records as well as the City-commissioned inflow and infiltration studies to assess the likelihood that the city was underreporting spills as well as the severity of the City s INFLOW AND INFILTRATION problem and whether it had taken adequate measures to address it. August 2004 SBCK met with the City s Collection System Manager and Public Works Director to discuss SBCK questions and concerns related to spills, pipe capacity to handle increased wet weather flows to the treatment plant caused by inflow and infiltration, exfiltration, the schedule of repair and replacement of sewer mains, and other aspects of collection system management. August 2004 SBCK filed Public Record Act requests with both the City and the Regional Water Board, and reviewed boxes full of files related to spills and management of the City s sewer system. August 2004 SBCK submitted written comments to the Regional Water Board on the renewal of the Clean Water Act National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) discharge permit for Santa Barbara s El Estero wastewater treatment plant. Our comments urged, among others, the inclusion of more stringent goals and schedules for inspecting, cleaning and repairing sewage pipes, addressing INFLOW AND INFILTRATION, and reducing sewage spills by 20 percent per year. September SBCK met with the Mayor and members of City Council as well as Public Works staff to assess whether there was any opportunity to avoid litigation and to determine whether the culture of denial had really turned around, as City Councilmember Das Williams had suggested. City staff continued to claim that they run a state-of-the-art system and that their one percent per year pipe rehabilitation and replacement effort is more than adequate. October 2004 SBCK submitted written comments to the Regional Water Board on the Clean Water Act NPDES permit renewal for the Mission Canyon satellite sewage collection system (11 miles of sewage pipe in the foothills managed by the County), which discharges to the El Estero wastewater treatment plant. October and December 2004 SBCK testified at Regional Water Board hearings on the Mission Canyon satellite system permit renewal, urging reissuance as a federal NPDES permit as opposed to renewal as a state Waste Discharge Requirement permit. November 2004 SBCK s expert completed a detailed analysis of the Sanitary Sewer Survey the City commissioned in 2003 and identified a number of areas in the City that are likely to experience sewage overflows during rain events. SBCK began routinely monitoring those areas when it rained. January 2005 SBCK sent a Public Records Act request to the City to obtain various documents related to sewage system management, including recent spill reports, discharge monitoring reports, correction notices and inspection reports, maintenance and inspection logs, recent inflow and infiltration reports 3

4 and hydraulic analyses, documents related to any hydraulic modeling of the collection system, citizen complaints, and capital improvement plans and budgets. February 2005 SBCK identified a sewage spill on Spring Street during a rain event which the City failed to report as required by law. February 2005 SBCK met with the City s Wastewater System Manager to provide input on how the City could be doing a better job managing the sewage system and reducing spills. We highlighted the excessive wet weather overflows at Spring Street, the Harbor and other places as unacceptable; the need to increase the percentage of pipe repaired or rehabilitated each year; concern about exfiltration and the need for the City to investigate it through studies and then address it; and the need for a sewer lateral inspection and repair ordinance and other means (e.g., taking more aggressive action to eliminate illegal downspout disconnections to the sewer) to address inflow and infiltration. March 2005 SBCK met with the City s Wastewater System Manager to provide input on a proposed ordinance to address faulty sewer laterals. April 2005 SBCK testified before Council s Ordinance Committee on the proposed laterals ordinance, stating that the ordinance is one of many measures the City needs to take to fix the serious problems with its sewage system and providing some specific recommendations about how the draft ordinance could be improved. We emphasized that any money spent on sewer lateral inspection or repair rebates should not be diverted from the City s existing budget for repair and replacement of public sewer mains, which we stated was already grossly insufficient. April 2005 SBCK submitted a letter to the editor of the News Press applauding the City s initiative to implement an ordinance to address faulty sewer laterals, yet noting that this is but one of many other efforts the city needs to undertake to reduce spills, address capacity constrictions and replace leaking sewer mains. May 2005 SBCK attended and testified at the two stakeholder meetings convened by the City, emphasizing that the ordinance is one of many measures the City needs to take to fix the serious problems with its sewage system. June 2005 SBCK testified before the City Creeks Division on the laterals ordinance and the need for other additional measures to improve the management of the City s sewage system. June 2005 SBCK submitted written comments on the City s draft Storm Water Management Program (SWMP), recommending, among other amendments, that the SWMP specify within what time period a sewer line break identified through smoke testing must be repaired; specify goals for the length of sewer line to be inspected each year; and ensure 100% compliance with the sewer lateral inspection and repair ordinance. October 2005 SBCK met with the City s collection system manager to discuss City efforts to complete hydraulic modeling of the collection system in order to better understand and address capacity 4

5 constrictions that contribute to the unacceptably high number of sewage overflows at Spring St., the Harbor and other problem areas. October 2005 SBCK submitted comments on the City s revised draft Storm Water Management Program, including specific comments relating to the need for implementation of solutions to address sewage spills and efforts to identify instances of exfiltration or discharge of sewage to storm drains. December 2005 SBCK sent another Public Records Act request to the City to continue monitoring the number, reporting and severity of sewage spills in Santa Barbara and how many were discharging to storm drains, creeks and the ocean. January 2006 SBCK met with Councilmember Brian Barnwell and the Mayor s chief of staff in an effort to keep the momentum going on the laterals ordinance and develop a more efficient and effective strategy that would get all the laterals in Santa Barbara inspected and repaired more quickly and efficiently. January 2006 SBCK testified before the City Council on the City s Storm Water Management Program, highlighting among other things the need for meaningful action by the City to address its unacceptably high rate of sewage spills. January 2006 SBCK testified before City Council s Ordinance Committee on January 31 about the sewer lateral inspection and repair ordinance, emphasizing that a lateral inspection program must be an enforceable ordinance (rather than a voluntary program) and passed as soon as possible; and that the approach used should get as many laterals inspected as quickly as possible, be vigorously enforced, include economic assistance in some form for those who cannot afford to repair laterals if inspections find them defective, and not divert funds from existing and already inadequate public sewer main repair and replacement efforts. February 2006 SBCK attended another City-convened stakeholder meeting to provide input on pros and cons of various options that could be included in the laterals ordinance as triggers requiring an inspection. March SBCK testified before City Council s Ordinance Committee on the proposed sewer lateral inspection and repair ordinance, emphasizing the need to adopt an aggressive ordinance that will get all the laterals in the City inspected in as short a time as possible and reiterating that any City funding spent on lateral inspection or repair rebates NOT be diverted from the existing budget for repair/replacement of sewer mains, which is already too low. We emphasized the severity of the City s sewage spill problem, highlighting the very high number of spills in the past few years in comparison to the state median and noting that every spill is a violation of the Clean Water Act for which the City is liable. We reminded the committee that SBCK has been lobbying City Council for years to take proactive and meaningful action to address this problem. May 2006 SBCK testified before City Council on the proposed sewer lateral inspection and repair ordinance, strongly advocating for the ordinance to institute a grid system (dividing the City up into ten 5

6 sections and inspecting all houses in one section per year for ten years), provide incentives for people who voluntarily get their lateral inspected earlier than required, and establish a fund (through a modest increase in sewer rates) that could help people pay for any necessary repairs. We reiterated yet again that any City funding spent on lateral inspection or repair rebates NOT be diverted from the existing budget for repair/replacement of sewer mains, which is already insufficient. We emphasized the severity of the City s sewage spill problem, highlighting the very high number of spills in the past few years in comparison to the state median and noting that every spill is a violation of the Clean Water Act for which the City is liable. We noted that EPA and the State Water Board are paying closer attention to sewage spills and are increasing enforcement action against municipalities, highlighting the recent lawsuit against the City of LA which resulted in the City having to spend $2 billion over the next 10 years to fix its sewage system, and noting that this could happen to Santa Barbara. We reminded the committee that SBCK has been lobbying City Council for years to take proactive and meaningful action to address this problem. July 2006 SBCK testified before City Council s Finance Committee urging them to approve a rebate program for lateral inspections and repairs as generously funded as possible, and to also enact a strong inspection and repair ordinance as soon as possible. September 2006 SBCK testified at a City Council meeting urging them to adopt a strong sewer lateral inspection and repair ordinance, fund the rebate program at a higher level, and more forcefully require Wastewater Division staff to explore a grid system option for speeding up the annual rate of lateral inspections. May 2007 SBCK submitted another Public Records Act request to the City for documents relating to spills and other aspects of collection system management. September SBCK submitted another Public Records Act request to the City for documents relating to spills and other aspects of collection system management. October 2008 SBCK presented testimony to the Regional Water Quality Control Board alerting them to the City s extremely high rate of sewage spills and urging them to investigate and take enforcement action as appropriate. October 2009 SBCK testified before the Regional Water Quality Control Board highlighting the inadequacy of the City s schedule of rehabilitating or repairing only 1% of the collection system per year and urging the Board to take enforcement action against the City for its exceedingly high rate of sewage spills. The Board decided to sit back and wait to see whether the City s spill performance improved over the ensuing two years. October 2009 SBCK requested and reviewed City s updated Sewer System Management Plan. July 2010 SBCK and Heal the Ocean met with the City s new Wastewater System Manager to discuss the City s proposed changes to the Sewer Lateral Inspection Program as well as our concerns with the high rate of sewage spills and the City s inadequate efforts to address the problem. 6

7 August SBCK submitted another Public Records Act request to the City for documents relating to spills and other aspects of collection system management. August 2010 SBCK attended a Water Commission meeting regarding modifications to the sewer lateral incentive program. November 2010 SBCK requested from the City and reviewed information regarding the Wastewater Division s capital improvement plan budget and plans for sewer main repair and replacement projects. February 2011 SBCK met with Mayor Schneider to let her know SBCK was filing a Notice of Intent to Sue the City for the City s excessive sewage spills. February 2011 SBCK filed a 60-day Notice of Intent to Sue the City for violations of the Clean Water Act related to sewage spills. April 2011 SBCK filed the lawsuit in federal district court at the expiration of the 60-day notice period. March 2012 After several sessions of mediation with a federal Magistrate, SBCK and the City reached agreement and signed a Consent Decree to settle the lawsuit. The Decree was submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice for review and comment. May At the expiration of a 45-day comment period, the Consent Decree was entered into the federal court. 7