So far, Santa Barbara County’s spent about $2.3 million cleaning out the Santa Maria Riverbed. It’s only one of the partners involved in the cleanup efforts, and those efforts have only tackled a third to half of what’s there.
There was still a lot of work left to do, last I checked, and at least one encampment resident planned to escape by simply moving deeper into the riverbed corridor. I’m pretty sure that person isn’t the only one.
How did we get here? Hopefully the partner agencies spending millions on this cleanup of encamped residents who have lived in the riverbed for years—one said they’d been there for 12!—have also discussed how to not get back to this same place a few years down the line.
Fences, mattresses, tarps, and more fill truck after truck. Houseless residents who were allowed to put roots someplace they shouldn’t have for a variety of reasons—the biggest being it’s a riverbed that flows most often during the winter, collecting trash, human excrement, and whatever else is loose, and diverting it down through farmland and wetlands and into the Pacific Ocean (Nice!)—are being uprooted and their main option is Good Samaritan.
Good Sam, which doesn’t always take pets and likely has certain sobriety and behavior requirements. So, what are the other options?
We’re obviously not getting rid of homelessness, no matter what Gov. Gavin Newsom promised with his Proposition 1 initiative to move money around to build housing for the most vulnerable. What’s the post-cleanup plan?
You know who didn’t have a plan and is trying to have a plan and is running into problems with said plan? Santa Barbara County and its skunky cannabis conundrum. The county is almost ready to put a cannabis odor ordinance into action! Kiss those pesky odors goodbye!
Well, actually, the county Planning Commission pushed a decision on the odor issue to get more feedback from community members and the cannabis industry. I think, no matter what, residents who don’t want to smell that floral harvest are going to be pissed. Can we really scrub smells out of the open air?
Meanwhile the biggest issue seems to be enforcement. If an area has more than one cannabis grow, where’s the smell coming from? One resident’s been complaining about her odoriferous neighbors for years, but her complaints were always considered “unverified.”
“It is not realistic to expect a resident to prove where odor is coming from when there are multiple farms upwind of Buellton,” Theresa Reilly of Buellton wrote in a public comment letter.
What is cannabis code enforcement supposed to do? Go sniff out the culprit?
I supposed I could make a noise complaint and just point to downtown Santa Barbara. See if they can figure out which bar is playing the music I’m upset about.
Might be difficult.
At least Guadalupe can pinpoint its problems. They’re self-inflicted, caused a big clog, and will cost $400,000 to fix. One sewer treatment plant clog led to another, the local water board got involved, and now the gritty situation needs to be dredged and a filter system reinstalled, according to the city.
But don’t worry, Guadalupe, “You can still flush your toilet,” according to City Administrator Todd Bodem.
The Canary is all about sludge removal. Send dredging equipment to canary@newtimesslo.com.