Cachuma Board, Santa Ynez Water Agency Strike Deal

Agreement on fish habitat projects puts a plan known as 'second barrel' in a position to proceed

By Ben Preston, Noozhawk Staff Writer | Published on 03.09.2010

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After reaching an impasse two weeks ago over a $9 million project called “second barrel,” the Cachuma Operations and Maintenance Board — the agency responsible for administering 80 percent of the South Coast’s water supply — appears poised to move forward and begin bidding for construction.

First, a memorandum of understanding had to be struck with the Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District, Improvement District 1 — commonly known as ID-1 — over how to budget several federally mandated fish habitat projects within ID-1’s jurisdiction.

A lack of clarity on the issue had caused ID-1, a voting member of COMB, to oppose the second barrel — a redundant section of pipe running the 8,200 feet from the outlet of the Tecolote Tunnel at the foot of the Santa Ynez Mountains to Goleta’s Corona del Mar Treatment plant.

While the move caused frustration among South Coast water officials, a deal was struck at COMB’s special board meeting Monday and ID-1 agreed to endorse the project.

The Goleta Water District, one of the agencies that has been pushing for the second barrel project, had been involved in getting the legal language of the MOU just right.

Goleta’s board spent two-plus hours dissecting the document last week after representatives from Goleta’s board of directors attended ID-1’s special board meeting March 1.

“We got the appropriate language in the MOU and it got approved,” ID-1 General Manager Chris Dahlstrom said after a special COMB meeting Monday afternoon.

He said that although big-ticket items such as the second barrel project have to be decided at COMB’s regular meeting — the next one will be March 22 — he is confident that the project, which has encountered numerous obstacles over the past eight months, will be approved without any problems.

— Noozhawk staff writer Ben Preston can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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