COUNTY TO CONDUCT SEDIMENT DEPOSIT OPERATIONS AT GOLETA BEACH
By Santa Barbara County Public Works Department
Due to recent rainfall and the increased chance of future storms, Santa Barbara County Public Works will begin sediment deposit operations at Goleta Beach. The sediment deposit will start as soon as Wednesday, January 11, and will continue as needed until facilities have been cleared. Operations will occur Monday through Friday Weekend work may be required to complete the process sooner and minimize beach closures.
Santa Barbara County Flood Control Director Walter Rubalcava said, “Monday’s storm delivered a substantial amount of material through the watershed. Most of today will be spent clearing out the rocks and sediment from the basins to decrease the potential for runoff to vulnerable areas during future storms.” Large rocks and debris will be sorted from the basin material before it is transferred to the beach.
Sediment nourishment has occurred at Goleta Beach since 1994 with desilting material from the Goleta Slough and other creeks and basins. Public Works has also conducted environmental monitoring at the beach since 2003. Beach nourishment operations are conducted through emergency permits from state and federal agencies. Flood Control staff will take sediment samples from the debris basins and ocean water samples during operations. Weekly reports with information on sediment sampling results are sent to regulatory agencies.
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department also monitors the ocean water at the deposit sites to ensure they meet water quality standards for recreation. Beach nourishment operations have also protected Goleta Beach Park from further erosion by creating a wide shore near the location of the sediment deposit. For more information about district programs, visit www.countyofsb.org/pwd/floodcontrol.sbc.
13 Comments
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Jan 11, 2023 10:12 AMHere we go again...... SB dumping its dirt in Goleta.
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Jan 11, 2023 12:34 PMThe beaches need it. Since almost all the tributaries, creeks and rivers have dams or debris basins their is no more natural sand replenishment. Equals beach erosion!!
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Jan 11, 2023 12:43 PMSAIL - Yeah, I guess. It's just optics that bug me. Also, this isn't natural.
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Jan 11, 2023 12:57 PMI remember watching this in grade school many many years ago. Well worth the watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqT1g2riQ30
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Jan 12, 2023 10:34 AMThere is no more natural replenishment because there is the wrong kind of flood management. It can be done . We need to spend money on grinding up debris basin material instead of paying for studies for conclusions that are not right and just gloss over the evil of this precocious dumping of crap on our beaches.
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Jan 12, 2023 03:41 PMSAIL - great video, thanks!
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Jan 11, 2023 10:27 AMThe City of Santa Barbara contacted the scientific community after the last mud-slide disaster to determine the best place to deposit the sediment ("dirt"). Goleta Beach was identified hands-down the best place, so that's why GB will be continued to be used for such purposes. GB has easy access, the proper water current, and the best depth/angle from the beach to water for such an operation. Although some may think there are better locations to dump the debris, selecting Goleta Beach is pretty much a no brainer for so many reasons. I hope they do the same thing that they did last time and that was to dump a bunch of the smaller/medium sandstone rocks on County Road (@ Cathedral Oaks). We used quite a few of those free rocks in our garden and also created a small retaining wall.
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Jan 11, 2023 07:04 PMAnyone know whats going on with the kelp replant project? Phase 2?
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Jan 12, 2023 09:04 AMI attempted to get into Goleta Beach this morning to observe the dumping process, but....beach access blocked to public traffic at the entrance.
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Jan 12, 2023 10:27 AMThe ocean is not a dump! To call this nourishment is a falsehood. This is just hard to process crap from the foothills which should be piled and ground up before being dumped on our beaches. The devil be laughing on this one!
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Jan 12, 2023 12:05 PMWow a lot of strong opinions against anyone who opposed unnatural sediment dumping at our local beach. Be interesting to see the zip codes associated with all those downvotes.
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Jan 12, 2023 12:58 PMThe whole process of dumping the debris is quite simple. We've been here before and know the best way to take care of this easy-to-resolve problem.
1. Load debris.
2. Transport debris.
3. Dump debris.
4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 until project complete.
For those who have an issue with the location (Goleta Beach), not sure what to tell you. It's the same as having an issue as to where is the best location for the airport, best location for the new police department, best place for the harbor (it was put in a terrible location), best location for a roundabout, and so on. Goleta Beach was selected as the dump location for any number of reasons, of which the #1 reason was that it is t-h-e best place to dump by those who know and decide about these things. Salud agrees with the location, so that must count for something (in my book).
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Jan 12, 2023 03:06 PMIt’s unnatural to use debris basins to intercept runoff from the mountain that was on its way to naturally flowing into the sea. The most natural solution to this problem would be to dump the debris directly into the outlet of the creek it was flowing down in the first place. I don’t believe all the relevant creek outlets are accessible, so Goleta beach seems a convenient alternative. In any case, the waves and current will make it all disappear in a couple days. Grinding up the debris would be both unnatural and costly. In the aftermath of the Thomas fire there was a lot of concern about dumping contaminated debris from the inundated portions of montecito. However, i don’t think this concern is applicable to the pristine mountain run-off captured in debris basins.