In response to Nick Welsh’s article “Montecito’s Water War Erupts” the Montecito Water Security Team submits this rebuttal.
As voters consider the performance of the Board of Directors of the Montecito Sanitary District (MSD), it is important that they understand that the MSD discharges all of Montecito’s wastewater into the Pacific Ocean approximately 1,100 feet off Butterfly Beach. Wastewater can be treated to three levels before ocean discharge: secondary, which is the minimum allowed under State law; tertiary, which is cleaner and can also be used for landscape irrigation (“purple pipe”); and the so-called “gold standard,” which is so clean that it can be used to recharge groundwater basins. Anything less than the gold standard is, by definition, partially treated.
Under the direction of its board, the MSD treats about 500,000 gallons a day of wastewater to the secondary level and then discharges it into the ocean. It is therefore treating to the minimum level allowed under state law, despite the fact that Heal the Ocean has called on all local sanitation districts to discharge at the tertiary standard, and has been doing so since 2001 because of the obvious benefits to the environment. Summerland, by contrast, treats to tertiary before ocean discharge, as do numerous sanitary districts throughout the region and the state.