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runoff

Clean Water Starts with Us: How We Can Help Address Water Pollution

August 2, 2024 by Santa Barbara Channelkeeper

Water pollution is a complex issue with far-reaching consequences for ecosystems, human health, and the planet as a whole. However, the good news is that each of us has the power to make a positive impact with everyday actions we take. Here’s a closer look at water pollution, its effects, and how you can contribute to a cleaner, healthier environment. 

Understanding Water Pollution 

Water is a universal solvent, able to dissolve more substances than any other liquid on Earth. While this is a positive attribute that allows it to dissolve minerals like sodium chloride for the world’s oceans and to transport nutrients in our blood, it also means that water can easily become polluted when toxins are introduced.  

Water pollution occurs when harmful substances contaminate waterways like rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans, making them unsafe for consumption and damaging aquatic life. This pollution can come from various sources: 

  • Industrial Discharges: Factories and industrial plants can release pollutants into rivers and lakes through direct discharge or stormwater systems. 
  • Agricultural Pollution: Pesticides and fertilizers used in farming can wash into waterways, introducing harmful chemicals and excess nutrients. 
  • Sewage and Wastewater: Inadequate treatment of sewage and wastewater can introduce pathogens and pollutants into water systems. 
  • Stormwater Pollution: Chemicals, oil, grease, and nutrients can drain into municipal stormdrains and eventually local waterways 
  • Plastic Pollution: Single-use plastics and other debris can end up in oceans and rivers, causing harm to wildlife and ecosystems. 
  • Oil Spills: Accidental spills from ships and pipelines release harmful chemicals into the water, devastating aquatic environments. 

The Impact of Water Pollution 

The consequences of water pollution are severe: 

  • Health Risks: Contaminated water can carry diseases and toxins, leading to serious health issues for humans, including gastrointestinal problems, neurological disorders, and even cancer. 
  • Ecosystem Damage: Pollutants can disrupt aquatic ecosystems, harming fish, plants, and other wildlife. This disruption can lead to the collapse of local ecosystems and biodiversity loss. 
  • Economic Costs: Cleanup efforts, healthcare costs, and loss of recreational opportunities due to polluted water can have substantial economic impacts on communities. 

Local Efforts to Prevent Water Pollution 

Protecting water quality in the Santa Barbara Channel is at the core of Channelkeeper’s work to ensure that our community has access to clean, drinkable, swimmable, fishable water. To that effect, Channelkeeper monitors and advocates to protect water quality in the Santa Barbara Channel and surrounding watersheds. 

Our team gathers and shares water quality data to help decision-makers protect and restore local waterways and to foster wider community awareness and involvement in protecting water quality. We collect plankton samples to monitor harmful algal blooms, we respond to community member reports of pollution, and take action to ensure enforcement of fundamental environmental laws. We also mobilize community members to help us protect our waterways by picking up trash, plastic, and marine debris.  

How You Can Help: A Community Approach 

Reducing and preventing water pollution requires collective effort. Here are a few practical steps you can take to contribute to cleaner water: 

  • Proper Disposal of Chemicals and Waste: Avoid dumping chemicals, oils, pharmaceuticals, and hazardous substances down the drain, and make sure that your car doesn’t leak oil, antifreeze, or coolant. Be mindful of anything that goes into storm drains, since they flow directly into local waterways. 
  • Participate in Local Cleanup Events: Help protect water sources. Volunteer with Channelkeeper’s Watershed Brigade to remove trash from beaches, creeks, rivers, and urban areas.  Help keep local waterways and the environment clean! 
  • Reduce Plastic Use: Minimize your use of single-use plastics. Choose reusable bags, bottles, and containers. Properly recycle plastic waste and participate in local cleanup events to remove plastics from natural environments. Support companies that make decisions to use less single-use plastic and advocate for policies that work to address plastic pollution at its source.  
  • Use Eco-Friendly Products: Choose environmentally friendly cleaning products, pesticides, and fertilizers. Many of these products are designed to minimize harm to aquatic ecosystems. 
  • Educate Yourself and Others: Learn about where your water comes from and where it goes after you use it. Does your drinking water come from a well, a river, lake, or reservoir? Is the wastewater from your home treated at a facility or does it collect into a septic system? Where does stormwater flow to?  As you learn, you will be able to determine where your actions will have the most impact. Help raise awareness about water pollution within your community. Educate friends, family, and neighbors about the importance of water conservation and pollution prevention.  
  • Reduce Runoff: If you have a garden or lawn, avoid over-fertilizing and use natural methods to control pests. Redirect downspouts to landscape and install rain harvesting tools like barrels and cisterns. Implement rain gardens or permeable pavements to reduce runoff and improve water absorption. 
  • Conserve Water: Conserving water reduces the volume of wastewater that must be treated and decreases the strain on local water resources. Simple actions like fixing leaks, taking shorter showers, and using water-efficient fixtures can make a big difference. 
  • Be an Advocate: Use your voice to stand up for clean water. Speak out in support of the Clean Water Act, which helps hold polluters accountable. Tell your local elected officials that you support water protections and investments in infrastructure. 

We are All Part of the Solution to Water Pollution 

When it comes to water pollution, every action counts. By making mindful choices and encouraging others to do the same, each of us can significantly reduce our contribution to water pollution and help protect our precious water resources. Together, we can foster healthier ecosystems and communities and ensure a sustainable future for generations to come. Clean water is not just a necessity—it’s a right that we can all work to preserve.  

Filed Under: Education, Monitoring, Polluted Runoff Tagged With: pollution, pollution report, runoff, stormwater, water pollution

Every Yard Counts in Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change

February 7, 2023 by Santa Barbara Channelkeeper

The Santa Barbara Channel is vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate. Your yard can help protect it. 

The Santa Barbara Channel is one of the most biologically productive ecosystems found on Earth. However, changing oceanographic processes, warming water temperatures, ocean acidification, and sea level rise produced by a changing climate are already affecting the health of marine ecosystems.  

We’ve seen recently how coastal runoff from intense rains and flooding flushes trash and debris into the Santa Barbara Channel, degrading water quality. We’ve also seen how high nutrient levels from coastal runoff contribute to harmful algal blooms. Yet our community can minimize some of these impacts by making a few changes in their own yards.  

By conserving water and managing runoff, focusing on soil health, and reducing emissions from lawn care equipment, each of us can lessen our yard’s climate impact while conserving resources and enhancing habitat. Here are a few ideas to implement in your landscaped space. 

Replace Your Lawn

Fertilizing, mowing, blowing, and irrigating a lawn leads to a sizable climate footprint. In 2011, an Environmental Protection Agency report found that gas-powered lawn and garden equipment emitted approximately 6.3 million tons of volatile organic compounds and criteria pollutants (carbon, nitrous oxide, and particulate matter), and 20.4 million tons of carbon dioxide. By planting a variety of native, drought-tolerant plants, trees, shrubs, and ground covers that don’t require high maintenance, you can reduce your landscape’s water use, while providing habitat for birds, pollinators, and beneficial insects. You can make the transition gradually over time by replacing a different patch of turf each year. In addition, many municipalities offer rebates when you replace your lawn with water-wise plants. 

Focus on Soil Health

Healthy soils are the base of thriving ecosystems. Soils rich with organic matter support healthy populations of beneficial organisms while retaining moisture and helping sequester carbon. 

Avoid using synthetic fertilizers. Synthetic fertilizers are not only extremely energy-intensive to manufacture, but they also provide more nitrogen than plants can absorb, contributing to polluted runoff and hazardous algae blooms in the ocean, lakes, and rivers that collect runoff. 

Alternatively, composting food and yard waste is a great way to build healthy soil in your yard. Organic material will improve the fertility, soil structure, and water-holding capacity of your landscape. Planting a cover crop is another way to support healthy soil since plants can help hold soil prevent runoff during heavy rains, protect soil from evaporation during droughts, and capture nutrients to prevent nutrient loss in runoff.  

Be Water Wise

Long periods of drought followed by heavy rains make it increasingly important for each of us to manage and use water wisely. Collecting water from your roof in rain barrels, a cistern, or storage tanks can help you to retain water for future use.  

It’s also a good idea to consider the permeability of your landscape and make the most of downpours by diverting stormwater to designated areas in your yard where it can infiltrate and recharge groundwater resources.  

When irrigation is necessary, drip systems tend to waste less water to evaporation and runoff than conventional sprinklers. Mulching around the base of plants can also help prevent moisture loss while nourishing the soil. 

Use People Power

Reduce your yard’s greenhouse gas emissions by limiting the gas-powered equipment you use to maintain it. Lawn and garden equipment like lawnmowers and leaf blowers account for up five percent of total air pollution in the United States. In fact, according to the EPA, one gas mower spews 88 lbs. of greenhouse gas CO2, and 34 lbs. of other pollutants into the air every year. For a climate-smart alternative, choose hand tools like reel mowers, shovels, and brooms. 

Resources: 

Santa Barbara County 
 
WaterWise Santa Barbara Landscape Rebate Program 

Green Gardener Program 

WaterWise Garden Contest 

Ventura County 

Ventura Water Turf Replacement Rebate 

Ventura Water Conservation Resources 

Drip Irrigation Retrofit Program 

Filed Under: Polluted Runoff Tagged With: clean water, Climate Change, environment, pollution, runoff, Santa Barbara Channel, Yard

Holding Agricultural Polluters Accountable

September 29, 2021 by Santa Barbara Channelkeeper

The State Water Quality Control Board recently accepted our coalition’s request to review the rules regulating pollution from irrigated agriculture.

Fertile soils, abundant sunshine, and cool, coastal influence make Santa Barbara County a prosperous agricultural region with 720,000 acres of farmland. While climate and soil characteristics in Santa Barbara County provide for optimal crop yields, pollution that results from agricultural runoff has detrimental impacts on the environment and the health of our community.

In California, irrigated agriculture is the number one source of pollution to rivers, streams, and groundwater supplies. Despite this fact, discharges from irrigated agriculture are not regulated by the Federal Clean Water Act. Agricultural pollution in Santa Barbara County is regulated by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board through a program previously known as the Ag Waiver. In April 2021, the Regional Board reviewed and approved Ag Order 4.0, the latest iteration of the regional program that is supposed to protect our waterways from fertilizer and pesticide pollution.

California Coastkeeper Alliance (CCKA), Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, Monterey Coastkeeper, and other allies have worked tirelessly for many years advocating for common-sense rules that would require the agricultural industry to protect both surface water and groundwater.

While the new Ag Order 4.0 rules are lacking in many ways, they also represent important advancements. For example, for the first time in history, fertilizer application limits were set in an effort to prevent overapplications of nitrogen. This is an important step toward addressing nitrate pollution problems.

Despite improvements, Ag Order 4.0 is significantly flawed. The Regional Water Board caved to political pressure from the industry to avoid collecting minimal site-specific water quality data so pollution can be traced to its source. Fertilizer application limits, while critically important, are set so high that only the most egregious applications are limited, and many water supplies will continue to degrade for decades to come. Additional loopholes and exemptions abound within the Order.

California Coastkeeper Alliance, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, and Monterey Coastkeeper are working to ensure agricultural practices on the Central and South Coasts are protective and lead to fishable, swimmable, and drinkable water in our creeks, rivers, and coastal areas. 

First, we are working with other stakeholders and the Regional Board to make sure the existing rules of Ag Order 4.0 are implemented in a timely, fair, and effective manner.

Second, we successfully petitioned the State Water Quality Board to review Ag Order 4.0 and are demanding that it be improved. Specifically, we are advocating that the State Water Board:

  1. Require water quality monitoring that allows the Regional Board to determine which farms are polluting so they can be held accountable for degrading our waterways.
  2. Include timelines attached to enforceable, quantifiable milestones to ensure that farms make progress over a reasonable period of time and eventually meet water quality standards.
  3. Establish and maintain healthy riparian zones to protect water quality and natural ecosystems.

Ultimately, the duty of the Water Boards is to protect and restore water quality for today and generations to come, not to protect corporate agriculture. We will defend the modest improvements proposed by the Central Coast Regional Board and continue to fight for stronger rules that will fully protect our shared water resources.

For more detail, see CCKA’s Principles to Protect Californians and Our Waterways from Unsustainable Ag, available here.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Polluted Runoff Tagged With: ag order, agriculture, fertilizer, nitrate pollution, nitrogen, over application, pollution, runoff, water quality

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Santa Barbara, CA 93103
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(805) 563-3377

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NAVIGATION
  • About
    • Our Mission & Vision
    • Our Team
    • Our Boat
    • Our History
    • Our Impact
    • About the Santa Barbara Channel
    • About Local Watersheds
    • Strategic Framework
    • Financial Information
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Our Work
    • Education
      • Student Art Show
    • Community Engagement
      • Cruise Ship Advocacy
      • Report Pollution
      • Volunteer
      • Water Conservation
      • Oil Spill Resource Guide
      • Film Plastic Recyling
      • Action Alerts
    • Field Work
      • Beach Water Quality
      • Stream Team
        • Water Quality Indicators
        • Stream Team Data Portal
        • Leydecker Archives
      • MPA Watch
      • Cruise Ship Monitoring
      • Ocean Acidification
    • Advocacy
      • Aquaculture Advocacy
      • Polluted Runoff
      • Agriculture
      • Oil & Gas
        • Protecting the Coast from Sable Offshore’s Pipeline Restart
        • Refugio Oil Spill
        • Oil Spill Resource Guide
        • Platform Decommissioning
        • Legacy Oil Wells
        • Offshore Fracking
      • Ventura River
      • Plastic
        • Film Plastic Recyling
      • Marine Protected Areas
        • MPA Watch
      • Water Supply
        • Desalination
        • Conservation
    • Enforcement
      • Ventura River
      • Offshore Fracking
      • Agriculture
      • Sewage
      • Ojai Quarry
      • Halaco
  • Media
    • Press Releases
    • Blog
    • Newsletter Archive
    • eNews Archive
    • Photo Gallery
    • Video Gallery
  • Take Action
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