The Santa Ynez Community Services District (CSD) will vote to include Los Olivos into its service area on Feb. 15 but won’t challenge the county’s decision to form a similar district in Los Olivos.
A Jan. 27 letter from Santa Ynez CSD General Manager Jeff Hodge to Santa Barbara County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) Director Paul Hood said that the district’s staff wouldn’t oppose the petition for a Los Olivos CSD as long as the process “begins promptly and proceeds with reasonable diligence.”
Los Olivos, an unincorporated town of roughly 1,100 residents, has experienced an ongoing problem with overflowing septic tanks for decades and has no community services district to help manage wastewater.
Santa Barbara County declared Los Olivos a Special Problems Area in 1974 after it was discovered that overflowing septic tanks could contaminate the shallow groundwater table.
The county further pressured Los Olivos in 2012, when it adopted a mandate from the State Water Resources Control Board stating that the town needed to deal with its onsite sewage system.
An informal petition signed by at least 140 Los Olivos residents was submitted to the Santa Ynez Valley CSD, which then petitioned LAFCO to include Los Olivos under its jurisdiction.
The Santa Ynez Valley CSD isn’t contiguous to Los Olivos and would require additional infrastructure. Some residents, like Mark Herthel, argue that Los Olivos residents would relinquish local control if the town is included with the Santa Ynez Valley CSD. Instead, they want Los Olivos to have its own community services district.
“We’re trying to do this thoughtfully with consensus rather than conflict,” said Herthel, who is a part of the steering committee to form the Los Olivos CSD.
However, a feasibility study presented to LAFCO on Dec. 8, 2016, said it would cost more than $20 million to build and maintain a wastewater treatment facility in Los Olivos.
If onsite septic systems are left in place, it’ll cost each household more than $17,000 to upgrade plus an annual $895 maintenance fee, according to another report by Berkson Associates.
An April 4, 2016, letter from Chris Dahlstrom, general manager of the Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District, to LAFCO Director Hood said the inclusion of Los Olivos in the Santa Ynez Valley CSD would be problematic because it would be a “wasteful duplication of services” that the conservation district already provides.
“[The conservation district] is fully capable of providing sewage services to the Los Olivos area without any change to its current sphere of influence or service area,” Dahlstrom wrote.
This article appears in Feb 9-16, 2017.