At Rincon Point in southern Santa Barbara County, it is generally agreed that shoreline homes’ failing septic systems are leeching sewage into the surf, a problem that leads to beach closures and, sometimes, to surfers getting sick. More than four years ago a majority of the owners voted to address the problem by hooking their homes up to the Carpinteria Sanitary District’s sewage treatment system. A small group of homeowners, however, opposed the hookups and sued, claiming that an environmental impact report (EIR) should have been completed before the vote. They won.

In the last four years, Heal the Ocean has taken another run at the problem. This local group that focuses on cleaning up beach pollution raised the grant funds to pay for an EIR, and the final report came out in September 2004. Everything looked set for another vote of the beachfront owners, but then three homeowners sued, claiming that the completed EIR was insufficient. A series of court hearings began in January. In February the judge ruled that the complaint was “vague, ambiguous and unintelligible,” and requested clarification, which has since been submitted. The plaintiffs don’t want to be required to hook up to the sewer system, which would cost them $20,000–50,000 per household, and the sewer proponents see the suit over the EIR as a stalling tactic. Meanwhile, Rincon Point continues to have problems when water levels are high.

The frustrating thing, said Hillary Hauser, executive director of Heal the Ocean, is that most homeowners are willing to pay to fix the problem. “For a long time,” she said, “surfers at Rincon Point had a perception that the homeowners were evil. But when we talked to [the homeowners], they were desperate to find a solution to this problem, because a failing septic system is a terrible thing to live with. I mean, some of them can’t wash the dishes or use the toilet when it rains. It only took a few contrarians to put the brakes on a sewage treatment plan. In the meantime, the beach still gets closed.”

Meanwhile, in the tiny Sonoma County hamlet of Monte Rio, on the Russian River, a plan to solve a similar problem with septic tanks has succeeded. In a June 2003 election, 59 percent of the town’s 440 voters agreed to form an assessment district to help foot the $11 million bill for building a sewage system. The town will still need some help, said Mike Reilly, Coastal Commissioner and County Supervisor for Monte Rio’s district. Residents are taxing themselves $3 million over the course of 40 years, and a mix of grant funding has covered most of the remaining cost, but “we’re $1.5 to $2 million short,” Reilly said. Nevertheless, the town “hopes to go to bid this summer.”

In a side note, water quality activist and surfer Donna Frye, who was featured in our 2000 article, went on to become a San Diego City councilwoman and, in November 2004, ran for mayor of San Diego. According to the official count, she lost to incumbent Dick Murphy by 2,108 votes. Three court cases have been filed to challenge the result.

—Arno Holschuh

When Steve Hackett sold a conservation easement on his Howe Creek Ranch in Humboldt County, he said he had “a lot of neighbors watching my project, most with a certain level of distrust and concern.” A year later, however, “they wanted me to help them with easements of their own.”

Howe’s ambitious plan was to use the $1.3 million he received from the easement’s sale to the Pacific Land Trust, funded by the Wildlife Conservation Board and the Coastal Conservancy, to pay off debt that was forcing him to harvest timber aggressively and even to consider selling lots for residential development. Instead, he invested the remaining capital in projects likely to bring him more money in the future—soil improvements, for example.

The easement will also help Hackett pass the ranch on to his children. By stipulating that the set-aside land can only be used for agriculture, the easement lowers its market value and, along with that, the estate tax.

“We were able to accomplish everything we wanted to accomplish,” Hackett said. He reported that some 20 other ranchers and private timberland owners contacted him after the close of escrow on Howe Creek Ranch. “Of those 20,” said Hackett, “five had the requirements necessary to be competitive for public funding.” With Hackett’s help, they’ve formed the Six Rivers to the Sea project, which aims to protect over 17,000 acres of ranchland through a single easement.

“It’s fortuitous that someone like Steve Hackett is in the process of looking at the global scope of protecting habitat,” said Su Corbaley, a project manager for the Coastal Conservancy who has been working with the ranchers on the giant project. Because of the extent of land involved, it is unlikely that the Conservancy (or any other single agency) will be able to fund the project alone, so Corbaley and Hackett are trying to craft an easement that would attract funding from several agencies or private conservancies. The final easement will probably have to meet the standards of the Wildlife Conservation Board, Forest Legacy, the Nature Conservancy, or some combination of those.

And as if ranching and arranging mammoth conservation easements weren’t enough, Hackett has also taken up salmon habitat restoration. His company, Northwest Resource, does stream bank stabilization and assessment work, helping to undo the legacy of damaging land use practices.

The key to Hackett’s success in habitat conservation and restoration (other than his obvious enthusiasm) may be his cultural identity. “It’s important that he’s a rancher,” Corbaley said. “He speaks the language, which makes him more able to get the process rolling with other ranchers.” Hackett found simpler words to express his unique advantage: “I’m just a farm boy,” he said.

—Anne Canright