Update on Los Olivos Sewer Project (from LOCAL Control)

Dear Neighbors,

Thank you for your interest in LOCAL Control and the status of the septic-to-sewer project for Los Olivos!  Thank you, as well, for your patience as we work to get a Facebook group and a website for LOCAL Control up and running so that we can post important information and documentation to be shared widely.

One of LOCAL Control’s main goals is to increase the public’s awareness of the project so that people understand what the Los Olivos Community Services District (“CSD”) is doing in connection with the project today.  LOCAL Control fully supports a sensible, informed, prompt, economically sound, and local plan for building a sewer system and sewage treatment plant in Los Olivos.

The great news is that everyone has long been in agreement on some truly essential points: 

1. the quality of the area’s groundwater must be improved;

2. the downtown commercial core of Los Olivos needs more public restrooms; and 

3. local residents want a solution that will guard against development and preserve the historic character and small-town charm of our beautiful, rural community.  

Additionally, as the Los Olivos CSD explained in Resolution 19-04, which was unanimously adopted by the CSD Board in August 2019, the vast majority of stakeholders were also in agreement on a fourth essential point: 

4. the correct approach to addressing the town’s longstanding groundwater problem is to study and develop a wastewater facility sized to serve the commercial core of Los Olivos and to leave determinations about the necessity for any subsequent phases, adding in adjacent high-density areas, to be made based on groundwater monitoring conducted once the downtown facility is operational. 

The CSD introduced this approach to the public as the “Local Phased Approach,” and the approach is consistent with the Santa Ynez Valley Community Plan adopted by the SB County Board of Supervisors in 2009. 

Whether you loved the Local Phased Approach or hated it, it is important to know that all or nearly all of the community was wholly unaware aware of the CSD’s decision to abandon the public money and years of study invested in the Local Phased Approach.  Moreover, the CSD has yet to acknowledge this reality–let alone explain, or point to any evidence in support of, it.  Only as of February 2022, did it begin to emerge that the CSD has been pursuing a vastly larger and more expensive sewer system and sewage treatment plant for this small, rural community.

LOCAL Control seeks to encourage local residents to engage – with the CSD and with their neighbors, friends, and elected officials – about when, why, and by what authority the CSD ceased to pursue the Project Description the CSD adopted in August 2019.  

If you are interested in working to get the septic-to-sewer project back on track, please attend CSD meetings, ask questions, and demand accountability.  Otherwise, we run the risk of seeing Los Olivos burdened with a sprawling system it does not need and cannot afford – and that will invite and encourage development.  Worse still, if the CSD does not offer this community a local approach that is sized for Los Olivos, the CSD runs the risk of losing local control of this incredibly important project in which residents have already invested substantial amounts of time and money.  

If you have friends or family members interested in joining LOCAL Control, please ask them to email their contact information to:  admin@localcontrol4losolivos.org.