Waves Break Goleta Slough Siphon

The bureaucratic clogging of the mouth of the Goleta Slough over federal steelhead trout worries discovered by this newspaper last week hit more snags over the weekend. Big waves broke the pipe being used to siphon the estuary’s sitting waters, which were causing concerns for the Santa Barbara airport (due to increased bird-strike risk), the Vector Management District (due to skyrocketing mosquito levels), and others concerned about stagnation killing fish and other plant species. But a survey conducted this week revealed that the number of big birds had subsided enough to call the emergency project a success, so the pipe was removed rather than being fixed, according to airport planner Andrew Bermond, who continues to work on a long-term solution to keep the slough mouth open.