Every day, millions of gallons of wastewater are gathered from throughout the Goleta Valley and transported to Goleta's wastewater treatment plant. There the water is treated, disinfected, tested and safely discharged out to sea. Here is how we protect the environment.

Industrial contaminants are prevented from entering the sewer system by industrial pretreatment programs, which require that industries remove their own contaminants on-site. Education, inspection, testing and enforcement eliminate many pollutants in the wastewater before it enters the treatment plan.

At Goleta's award-winning treatment plant, the wastewater is screened and the solids allowed to settle out. A portion of the wastewater undergoes biological treatment and is allowed to settle out again. The biologically treated wastewater is blended with the remainder and disinfected. The remaining chlorine is then removed to protect the ocean environment.

As required by state and Federal regulators, wastewater is analyzed for many pollutants throughout the treatment process. In addition, seawater along the shore and in the kelp zone is tested, as are waters farther out to sea. Fish, shellfish, ocean plants and sediments from the ocean floor are also analyzed.

A decade of comprehensive test data involving thousands of scientific tests per year, clearly show that there are no harmful impacts to the public health or the ocean environment from Goleta's treated wastewater. Repeated tests over many years demonstrate that fish and sea life around the outfall pipeline are healthy and abundant.