A popular Santa Barbara County beach is open again after a nearly month long shutdown due to a massive sewage spill.
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department lifted the water contact closure for Goleta Beach. More than a million gallons of sewage flowed into the ocean in the area following a break in a Goleta West Sanitary District pipeline.
The pipeline which ruptured carried sewage from the district’s headquarters under Santa Barbara Airport to a regional wastewater processing facility. Most of the sewage flowed into the Goleta Slough, and then the ocean.
Sanitary District officials say the problem occurred late February 16 or early February 17. The spill was stopped on the 17th, but not before more than a million gallons of sewage flowed into the slough.
