Montecito water and sanitary districts want to collaborate on a recycled water project for irrigation customers. The treatment facility would be located here, on the sanitary district lot at Channel Drive and Monte Cristo Lane. 
An aerial view shows the Montecito Sanitary District property and possible treatment plant locations. 
Santa Barbara’s recycled water program irrigates schools, parks, and other landscaping. 
Proposed customers for a recycled water project include golf courses, hotels and the Santa Barbara Cemetery. 
Proposed customers for a recycled water project include golf courses, hotels and the Santa Barbara Cemetery. 
A graph shows historical water use at the Montecito Water District. 
A graph shows projected water use at the Montecito Water District. 
The Montecito Sanitary District headquarter is at 1042 Monte Cristo Lane. 
The Montecito Sanitary District recently finished grading for a new essential services building and has been planning a pilot recycled water program on its property. 
The Santa Barbara Cemetery, at 901 Channel Drive, could use recycled water to irrigate its lawns and other landscaping.
Recycled water may be on its way to Montecito.
The Montecito Water District’s long-range plans set goals of having 85-percent of its supplies come from “local, reliable, drought-proof” sources by 2025, including desalination, groundwater banking, and recycled water.
It depends heavily on surface water now, from the State Water Project, Lake Cachuma, and to a lesser extent its Jameson Reservoir. Lowered allocations during the drought have caused MWD to purchase supplemental water from outside the region.
Montecito has agreed on terms for an agreement to purchase potable water from Santa Barbara, and wants a recycled water project to provide non-potable reuse for irrigation to large customers such as golf courses and hotels.
Water board member Floyd Wicks said recycled water would reduce the demand on potable supplies for irrigation, and be a benefit to the entire community.
Outdoor water use accounts for about 80 percent of the district’s sales.
Non-potable reuse recycled water is wastewater that is treated to a certain standard and distributed, via a separate “purple pipe” system, to customers for landscaping.
The Goleta Water District and City of Santa Barbara have been operating recycled water facilities for decades, and the Carpinteria Valley Water District is working on its own recycled water project.
Montecito water board members unanimously voted Jan. 22 to “formalize its intent” to pursue a project with the Montecito Sanitary District: a non-potable reuse project for irrigation, which was recommended by consultants in the Recycled Water Feasibility Plan last year.
That would require building a water reclamation facility at the sanitary district, at 1043 Monte Cristo Lane, and a separate pipeline distribution system to get the treated wastewater to the recycled water customers.
The feasibility study recommends building a 600,000-gallon-per-day facility to produce 370 acre-feet of water a year, at an estimated cost of $3,300 per acre-foot.
The capital costs would be about $15.8 million, with an annual operating and maintenance cost of $1.2 million, according to the district.
After studying the Montecito groundwater basin, the district may look into a larger project with indirect potable reuse for groundwater injection. That combined project would take longer and cost approximately twice as much, estimated at $31.2 million.
An alternative project is to help pay for the Carpinteria Valley Water District’s indirect potable reuse project, in exchange for a share of its potable water from another source, according to the feasibility study.
Next steps for the water district are to get going on several technical studies, and holding a joint board meeting with the sanitary district.
Collaboration between Montecito's water and sanitary districts
The Montecito sanitary and water districts need to work together on a recycled water project, since each agency has authority to do part of the job: to treat the water, and to deliver it to customers, respectively.
Recycled water was the hot topic in November’s competitive Montecito special district elections, and the two agencies with the power to make it happen are populated with board members who campaigned on that promise.
Separately, the sanitary district has been planning a pilot recycled water program on its Monte Cristo Lane property for years, to show the viability of a project in Montecito.
Sanitary board member Jeff Kerns has been attending recent water board meetings, and said at the January gathering that he would like the agencies to “paper up a deal” formalizing each agency’s role in the recycled water project.
The sanitary board briefly discussed the project at its Wednesday meeting, which was attended by the water district’s general manager Nick Turner and board member Brian Goebel.
Staff from both special districts have been meeting about the project, but the boards haven’t yet, and no date was scheduled as of Wednesday.
Turner gave the sanitary board a brief update from the audience, saying the water district is considering four technical studies. Those include a study on hydrogeology, financing options, the outfall/sanitary district ocean discharge permit, and customer commitments to buy the recycled water, he said.
“Obviously we don’t want to move forward and spend money unless there are commitments from end users,” he said.
The two boards will meet and talk about their respective roles before the proposals for studies go to the water board in February or March, he said.
Goebel said the water board looks forward to collaborating with the sanitary district on the project.
Sanitary board president Tom Bollay said the sanitary district wants to participate in talking to regulators and crafting the studies, since the project would be built on sanitary district land and involve its outfall permit.
“We’re on the right track,” sanitary district General Manager Diane Gabriel said.
Plans for the project
The water district’s implementation plan for the project includes funding technical studies, reviewing financing options, conducting environmental review, pursuing customer commitments, and designing and building the project, with an estimated completion in 2022.
MWD’s 2015 Urban Water Management Plan Update sets a goal of delivering 200 acre-feet of water a year by 2020, and 1,000 acre-feet a year by 2025. The proposed project would produce 370 acre-feet of recycled water a year.
So who would buy it?
The recommended project includes eight potential customers: the Valley Club of Montecito, Birnam Wood Golf Club, Santa Barbara Cemetery, Four Seasons Biltmore, Rosewood Miramar Beach hotel, a private residence (which appears to be Ty Warner’s according to a district map of potential customers), Ty Warner Hotels (next to the Biltmore property) and Music Academy of the West.
The Biltmore, Music Academy of the West, cemetery and Ty Warner properties are all located near the Montecito Sanitary District property, at Channel Drive and Monte Cristo Lane.
The Recycled Water Feasibility Study assumes that overall water use in Montecito will soon increase to pre-rationing levels, and more wastewater will head to the sanitary district.
Current inflows to the sanitary district treatment facility are lower than the 600,000-gallons-per-day number proposed for a recycled water project, but the study assumes that will change as the San Ysidro Ranch reopens, the Rosewood Miramar Beach hotel opens, and residents rebuild their homes damaged in the debris flows.
The sanitary district also is trying to get more customers onto the sewer system, who are or were using septic tanks.
If the district builds a facility that is too big, and it doesn’t receive the inflows it expects, it will produce less recycled water at a higher per-unit cost.
Overall water use dropped from 6,347 acre-feet in 2013 to the 3,000s range, where it has stayed since then. The district sold 3,753 acre-feet of water in 2018.
The region is in its eighth year of drought and the water district rescinded its allocations and penalties, but an emergency surcharge is still in effect. Customers are hitting, or exceeding, the 30-percent conservation rate, according to the district.
According to the feasibility study, total water use (including sales and exchanges with other agencies) is projected to shoot up to 5,064 acre-feet as soon as 2020.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.