Heal the Ocean

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Heal the Ocean, founded in 1998, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation that focuses on wastewater infrastructure – sewers and septic systems – as well as ocean dumping practices that have contributed to ocean pollution.
We are focused on Santa Barbara County, but our methods now serve as a model for other coastal communities across the country. From capping leaking oil-wells to Styrofoam recycling and cleanup orders, HTO is a non-profit organization that fights for a cleaner ocean for all.

Our work
• Wastewater & Recycling: As a part of our waste(d)water campaign, Heal the Ocean is pushing for the Santa Barbara region to turn wastewater supplies into clean and reliable recycled water.
• Homeless Camps: Heal the Ocean has been involved in cleaning up abandoned homeless camps in environmentally sensitive areas because the camps often contain trash and human waste that threaten the ocean environment.
• Interactive Maps: Heal the Ocean’s interactive Google Earth maps to follow our efforts to “heal the ocean” around Santa Barbara and Montecito.
• Summerland Oil: Heal the Ocean has worked with the State Lands Commission on the capping of leaking oil wells off the Summerland Coast.
• Pollution: Heal the Ocean has played an active role in the development of storm water permits and the initiation of a USGS/City of Santa Barbara study of groundwater/ocean interaction; we lobby for increased street sweeping and enforcement to prevent illegal dumping into creeks and storm drains.
• Sea Level Rise: Over the years, HTO has made strong input about adaptation to sea level rise, caused by Climate Change. Santa Barbara has critical infrastructure in flood zones that will be impacted by sea level rise. Heal the Ocean emphasizes immediate action to prepare for things to come.
• Septic Systems: Heal the Ocean spearheaded the successful removal of septic systems from Rincon Point. Working with the Carpinteria Sanitary District on the South Coast Beach Community Septic-to-Sewer Project, we successfully removed 7 miles of coastal septic systems from the Ventura County Line to Summerland. This removed the threat of septic pollution from beaches, creeks and groundwater.
• Groundwater: Since its early days, Heal the Ocean has dedicated resources and funding to monitor and clean up toxic groundwater beneath the city of Santa Barbara.
• Beached Boats: Heal the Ocean took a major role in handling the problem of derelict boats adrift along the south Santa Barbara county coastline, some of them crashing onto the beaches to create significant hazards of pollutants and debris.

Jasmin Tupy is the Operations Manager of Heal the Ocean.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.