Plastic Bags Litter Creek

Channelkeeper volunteers found 284 plastic bags along a 2.5-mile stretch of San Pedro and San Jose creeks in Goleta last week.

They videotaped the cleanup effort to prove that plastic bags still pose a problem in areas without single-use bag bans.

Last month, the state legislature approved the nation’s first statewide single-use plastic bag ban, but the Governor still needs to sign the bill into law.

Penny Owens, a Channelkeeper education coordinator, said the bill will die if governor Jerry Brown doesn’t sign it into law by the end of September.

Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, Ojai and San Luis Obispo County have already implemented bans.