Stormwater program report: city favors institutional trash controls, audit findings were minor

Jim Remley of the Creeks Division presented an overview of the City of Santa Barbara's stormwater management program, highlighting inspection activity, illicit-discharge responses, outreach campaigns, a growing focus on trash capture and an upcoming permit update.

Remley said the city conducted 1,697 construction-site inspections last year and recorded 106 illicit-discharge reports, all of which were responded to within the 24-business-hour requirement reported to the regional water board. "We responded to all of those within 24 business hours," Remley said.

On trash-capture requirements anticipated in the next permit round, Remley described options for compliance (structural full-capture devices inside drains versus institutional controls such as more frequent street sweeping, improved catch-basin screens, neighborhood cleanups and recent bans on Mylar balloons, polystyrene and certain single-use items). He said the city is leaning toward institutional measures because structural full-capture systems are expensive to install and maintain and can be prone to clogging and bypass.

The presentation also covered outreach work and a new media campaign, Protect What You Love, plus three self-guided urban creek trails and quick guides for project applicants. Remley said the city's annual SWMP reporting organizes roughly 250 measurable goals and that the six SWMP components (construction runoff, illicit-discharge detection and elimination, outreach, post-construction controls, monitoring, trash capture) are the focus of regulatory scrutiny.

Remley described an audit by the regional water board that resulted in a notice of violation for two minor issues related to inspection prioritization and completed-project data. The city committed to collect additional information and reprioritize inspections by proximity to water bodies; no fine was issued after the city proposed the corrective actions.

Remley said the regional board was expected to issue a draft new permit on July 2; if that schedule holds, adoption could be later this year and new requirements might take effect July 1, 2027. On funding, staff noted a proposed $350,000 stormwater grant fund in the Creeks fund during next fiscal-year budgeting to help incentivize green infrastructure on city projects.

During public comment, resident Chris Dahlstrom described a recent incident during curb-ramp and sidewalk work in which he said a city contractor (he named Lash Construction) discharged concrete into the curb gutter and storm drain and he urged more monitoring at problem locations such as the San Remo Street bridge crossing. Dahlstrom also flagged Shoreline Park parking-lot repaving as a missed permeable-surface opportunity. Staff acknowledged the Shoreline Park work is a parks project, cited cost considerations, and pointed to the proposed grant fund as a tool to support green infrastructure on future city projects.

Committee members asked how the city's large set of measurable goals is rolled up for reporting; staff said missing a single measurable goal can be a permit violation but that the program also uses periodic public-opinion surveys and trend analysis to evaluate outreach effectiveness. Staff recommended SB Connect as the preferred public reporting tool for illicit discharges because it generates GIS-based records that allow the city to identify recurring hot spots for scheduled maintenance.

Remley closed by inviting questions; no formal action was taken on item 6b.