Million-Dollar Penalty Finalized for Million-Gallon Sewage Spill in Goleta Slough

After spilling more than one million gallons of sewage into the Goleta Slough two years ago, Goleta West Sanitary District’s $1.5 million penalty was finalized with the Central Coast Regional Water Board on February 27. Rather than paying a cash settlement, the sewer district will fund well water remediation across approximately 30 family wells for up to four years. The Administrative Civil Liability penalty, which could have reached as much as $10 per gallon spilled, did not go unchallenged.

Sewage flowing from the slough into the Pacific had closed Goleta Beach Park for more than three weeks. “This enormous spill harmed public health, damaged our coastline, and disrupted the lives of the more than one million people who rely on this shoreline each year…. It was devastating — and it was preventable,” said County Supervisor Laura Capps. “At last week’s hearing, I pushed for stronger penalties against Goleta West, more robust water quality monitoring, and improved public notification systems. In my view, the settlement terms did not go nearly far enough. However, taken together with the corrective actions Goleta West has implemented since the spill, these measures will help protect public health and reduce the risk of future harm.”

The City of Goleta and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper were also among those who argued not only the relatively small penalty but that not enough time was spent investigating Goleta West’s actions after the spill and questioned the brief length of the supplemental project. Water board staff listed full replies, including:

• Past high-volume spills of up to three million gallons had penalties of $0.06 to $0.90 per gallon; Goleta West’s penalty of $1.45 per gallon was substantially higher
• Water Board staff spent more than 100 hours investigating the spill and Goleta West’s response, which was immediate, once it learned of the spill. Goleta Sanitary District, which processes Goleta West’s sewage, noted a drop in pressure at 6:26 a.m. on February 17, 2024, but its personnel left a voicemail at the wrong phone number. Brian McCarthy, who managed Goleta West at the time, and Joey Hilliard, the current manager, discovered the spill at around 9 a.m. on February 17 as they walked the pipeline after a repair the day before. McCarthy estimated the spill had begun around 7:30 the previous night, based on a drop in flow telemetry. They switched over to a secondary pipeline as cleanup began and later determined the spill was caused by pipe deterioration due to corrosive soils.
• Goleta West voluntarily committed to several initiatives to avoid future spills, including assessing pipe condition and a rehabilitation proposal, updating its management plan and communications with community partners, increasing routine inspections, and installing a spill alarm and monitoring system.
• The supplemental project to be funded by the penalty money is a pilot for Santa Barbara County, emulating those ongoing in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties to sample wells polluted from agricultural runoff. About 1,000 households in Santa Barbara County rely on wells. The pilot project will evaluate 100 wells and identify the costs to clean or provide water across 30 wells in low-income areas disproportionately affected by pollution, such as Cuyama, Sisquoc, and Isla Vista.

“We want ratepayers to know that spills are not okay,” said Goleta West manager Joey Hilliard in a statement. “We are responsible for protecting sensitive coastal wetlands from contamination, and our current investments — in addition to the civil penalty — are laser-focused on preventing future spills through system upgrades and better collaboration with all stakeholders.”

Goleta Mayor Paula Perotte expressed her disappointment at the Water Board’s 3-2 vote to accept the settlement. She’d told the boardmembers that the spill “devastated Goleta Beach and surrounding shoreline, closed a treasured public recreation area for more than three weeks, disrupted sensitive ecosystems, and deeply shook public confidence.” A greater penalty would have “better aligned with the harm suffered by our community and environment,” she noted.

For Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, “the main concerns were that there were a number of missteps taken by Goleta West that were a key part of why the sewage spill happened to be so large,” said Molly Troup, the nonprofit’s science and program manager. She said boardmembers at the hearing also raised the same issues. Ultimately, Goleta West had taken steps and been responsive since the spill, Troup said, with the expectation that regular review and training on response would correct the breakdowns in communication. Her group would have liked to see land managers consulted for the supplemental environmental proposal, but Channelkeeper supported the water improvement project.

The staff responses did not address the funding issue for that project beyond the two-and-a-half-year mark, but the settlement itself indicates an intent to seek funding from government or nonprofit sources as part of the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s “human right to water” priority.