Santa Cruz County Sanitation District

The Santa Cruz County Sanitation District (District) is a public agency which provides sewer maintenance, sewage collection, wastewater treatment, and disposal services to the communities of Live Oak, the City of Capitola and portions of Aptos and Soquel. The District maintains pipelines transporting waste from the District to the Santa Cruz City Wastewater Treatment Facility, located at Neary Lagoon in Santa Cruz. Visit the County’s Sewer and Water website for information on sewer service outside of these areas.

Our customers generate approximately 6 million gallons of sewage each day, which is transported from our Lode Street Facility to the wastewater treatment plant at Neary Lagoon. Neary Lagoon is owned and operated by the City of Santa Cruz. The District has a service agreement with the City of Santa Cruz to treat our sewage because the District has no wastewater treatment facility of its own. The treated wastewater is discharged to the Monterey Bay through an ocean outfall, which is also used by the City of Scotts Valley.

The Neary Lagoon plant treats a total of approximately 12 million gallons of wastewater per day to a quality level that meets stringent Environmental Protection Agency and State standards for discharge into the Monterey Bay. The County reports electronically to the California Integrated Water Quality System (CIWQS). Interested parties can obtain more information at the CIWQS website.

Learn more about our facility in the History of Lode Street Facility Document.

Santa Cruz County Sanitation District Staff

• District Engineer – Matt Machado
• Assistant District Engineer – Carolyn Burke
• Director of Administrative Services – Kim Moore
• District Counsel – Michael De Smidt
• Sanitation Engineer – Ashleigh Trujillo
• Water/Wastewater Operations Manager – Beatriz Barranco
• Environmental Programs Coordinator – Monica Tomlinson
• Construction Manager – Katie Beach
• District Secretaries – Terra Prestwich & Andrea Gifford