It took $40 million and nearly a decade of work, but on 10/19, the Goleta Sanitary District officially dove into a new, healthier era for the wastewater that it treats, as the facility — located between the Santa Barbara Aiport and Highway 217 and serving most of the Goleta Valley as well as UCSB — is now able to provide full secondary treatment, which is an upgraded level of sewage scrubbing. The project, which started in 2004 but was completed more than a year ahead of schedule, was the end result of a legal quest begun in 2002 by Heal the Ocean, whose director Hillary Hauser praised the early completion and explained at the weekend ribbon cutting that the district was collaborative throughout the process.
