Santa Barbara is preparing to meet a projected water shortage next year with a lawn-watering moratorium.
At its latest drought update Tuesday, the City Council unanimously voted to direct city staff to return next month with an ordinance banning lawn watering, which would be subject to a number of exceptions.
Water resources manager Joshua Haggmark said that since May 2015, residents have a cumulative conservation rate of 36 percent, and for the month of September, residents upped that to 41 percent.
“Our neck of California remains the epicenter of the current drought,” he told the council.
Lake Cachuma, which has traditionally supplied much of the South Coast’s water, is at 7.3-percent capacity, Haggmark said.
Making up for the rapidly dwindling surface water supplies is increased groundwater production, supplemental water purchases and desalination.
For 2016, the city reported importing 7,265 acre-feet of water from outside the area. (An acre-foot is a common measurement of water volume on a large scale.)
A revised timeline for Santa Barbara’s desal plant, Haggmark said, expects potable water production to begin in February or March 2017. The city, he said, is exploring how to power it in the long-term with renewable energy.
Despite the city’s evolving water portfolio, Haggmark said, it is still projected to face a 300-acre-foot shortage from August to October 2017.
After looking into alternatives, he said, a lawn-watering moratorium is the next logical step to address that shortfall while providing the city with another 500 acre-feet of contingency water.
“We’ve kind of blown through a lot of our contingency over the last two years as this drought has continued to exceed all expectations,” Haggmark said.
In September, the council met a proposed moratorium with some skepticism.
Councilmen Randy Rowse and Gregg Hart admitted on Tuesday that there was now sufficient momentum for a ban, which received the support of the city Water Commission.
“Our goals for the new demand-reduction measure were to protect the community’s investment in trees and shrubs, minimize impacts to economic activity in the community, and generate 800 acre-feet of new (water) savings,” Haggmark said.
He added that enforcement of the ban — a sticking point with the council in September — would be complaint-driven, which he said has proved to be a successful model in the city.
No enforcement case for a water-related rule has ever gone beyond a first violation, he said.
The residential, institutional and commercial sectors would each have their own exceptions to the ban.
Trees, shrubs, gardens and “water-wise” grasses are exempt, along with fields used mainly for active recreation by schools and child-care centers.
In the commercial sector, grass directly related to business activities, like ceremonial event spaces, would be exempt after an application process.
Recycled water would be used for construction work, and golf greens and tees would also be exempt.
If approved in December, the moratorium could go into effect as soon as Jan. 1.
In the spring, city staff plan to introduce for the council’s consideration a water-rationing plan, which Haggmark said would be a difficult-to-roll-out, last-resort conservation option.
Rationing, Councilman Frank Hotchkiss said, would not only give residents a solid idea of how much water the city would like them to save, but would allow them more flexibility in where they choose to save.
One concern with the proposed regulation, Rowse said, is asking residents, who are already doing more than their part to conserve water, to cut their water use further while new developments in the city continue to go up.
Even though new developments constitute only a small fraction of the city’s total water demand, it generates a perception of unfair regulation, he said.
Water issues were also related to the council’s decision to declare its support for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who are leading the movement in opposition to the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.
The pipeline, which is under construction and plans to transport crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois, has drawn widespread opposition across the country.
The focal point of the opposition has been protests on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in the Dakotas.
Protestors say the underground pipeline poses a danger to drinking water and violates sacred indigenous sites.
Numerous public commenters spoke in favor of the city’s resolution.
“To come out in solidarity with Standing Rock is to openly acknowledge that the fight for our natural resources is real and worthwhile, and the people fighting that fight are worthwhile too,” said Gwendolyn Garcia.
The pipeline and associated protests bring up concerns about the environment, tribal relations, due process and police treatment of protesters, said Councilwoman Cathy Murillo, who sponsored the resolution with Mayor Helene Schneider after it was proposed by members of the local Chumash tribe.
The resolution passed 5-1-1, with Rowse abstaining and Hotchkiss opposed. Both argued that the issue was outside the council’s purview.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.