Sludge Watch ==> Santa Barbara Calif Coast - Sewers or Septics - Battle Rages

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

this article has it all, the good, bad, & the unbelievable


LA Times

September 25, 2007

In Beach Enclave, Affluent at Odds Over Effluent

By REGAN MORRIS



RINCON POINT, Calif. — Septic tanks or sewers? The question of how to treat 
wastewater in this exclusive beachfront community is pitting neighbors, 
surfers and environmentalists against one another. Surfers have long 
complained about getting sick at the world-class surf break here that 
straddles Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. And blame for the pollution 
has long been laid on the septic tanks of the multimillion-dollar homes in 
the gated enclave of Rincon Point. After nine years of debate and several 
lawsuits, homeowners are to vote next month on whether to convert from the 
tanks to a sewer system. While most residents appear to back the conversion, 
a vocal group of residents is questioning its wisdom, with several saying 
they feel bullied into paying for an expensive system that would only 
encourage more development and more pollution.



“There is no evidence that our septic tanks are polluting anything,” said a 
homeowner, Billy Taylor, who with his wife, Brook Harvey-Taylor, is a surfer 
and an outspoken opponent. “Are we cleaning up the ocean? Or are we just 
moving our waste into another part of the ocean?”  Tests in 1999 showed 
signs of human waste in a creek that runs through Rincon Point into the 
ocean. But no fecal coliform bacteria were found upstream, which proponents 
of a sewer system say proves the septic tanks are responsible.



Opponents of the change say that since 1999 malfunctioning or old septic 
tanks have been repaired or replaced. Lauren Orlando, a wastewater expert 
from Boston University whom they brought in, said that the tests proved 
nothing and that the bacteria could have come from the diaper of a child 
swimming in the creek or ocean.

If the sewer vote passes, the owners of Rincon Point’s 72 homes will have to 
pay about $80,000 each to build the infrastructure to hook up to the waste 
treatment center in the city of Carpinteria, next to Rincon. The state would 
contribute about $2.1 million. In part because Rincon Point property is so 
valuable — a beachfront cottage considered a “tear down” by at least one 
agent is now listed for $4.4 million — most residents can afford to pay, 
either up front or over 30 years.



An environmental advocacy group, Heal the Ocean, has been pushing for sewers 
for nine years. But Hillary Hauser, who recounts founding the group because 
surfers asked her to help clean the water off Rincon Point, says 
“misinformation” could derail the project. Ms. Hauser pointed to what the 
Carpinteria Sanitary District’s general manager, Craig Murray, said were 
“absurd” reports that homeowners were being asked to bankroll the project 
because it is critical to developers of a proposed resort.

Still, Ms. Hauser was optimistic the sewer project would pass because of 
homeowners like Steve Halsted, who says the “silent majority” of residents 
support the sewer.

Mr. Halsted said the public perception of Rincon Point was of “ a lot of 
rich people polluting their ocean.”



“It’s time we do the right thing and get off of our septics and onto sewers 
and get this cloud away from us,” he said. Some homeowners also say they 
want sewers so they can add bathrooms and bedrooms to their homes and not 
have to worry about litigation or alternative treatment systems that could 
require permits. The ballots, which have been mailed to homeowners, will be 
tallied at a public meeting in Carpinteria on Oct. 16.  If the sewer is 
turned down and more fecal bacteria is found, enforcement action against 
individual homeowners is possible, said Harvey Packard of the Central Coast 
Regional Water Quality Control Board. But it is not clear how violators 
would be identified. Ms. Hauser speculated that homeowners could be required 
to put dye in their tanks, so polluters could be singled out.



Hugh Kaufman, a senior engineer with the federal Environmental Protection 
Agency in Washington, said that too often sewers were thought of as the only 
solution for water pollution. “In Rincon, it appears to me the biggest 
problem for the ocean is the discharge from the sanitary district going into 
the ocean,” Mr. Kaufman said. “If it is a problem with a particular septic 
tank, that’s easy and cheap to fix, a heck of a lot cheaper than sewering an 
area.”



But Mr. Murray and Ms. Hauser noted that the district dumps treated water 
into the ocean 1,000 feet offshore — not into Rincon Point’s creek. In 
Southern California, it is common practice for people to stay out of the 
water for days after rain because of runoff pollution. But surfers often opt 
to take their chances in places like Rincon Point and Malibu, which has 
problems similar to Rincon Point’s. “I don’t think you can blame the septic 
tanks for the pollution,” said Ray Gann, who has been surfing Rincon since 
1962. “We get surfers getting sick up and down the coast.”



Other surfers disagree. Wayne Babcock, a cofounder of Clean Up Rincon 
Effluent, said that the beach at Rincon Point was “notorious” for making 
surfers sick and that the homeowners should be forced to stop using septic 
tanks. When asked why they continue surfing here, Mr. Babcock and other 
surfers waxed poetic.

“You don’t have a choice,” Mr. Babcock said. “It’s Rincon. There’s nothing 
like it.”