The Montecito Water District took a major step forward to improve long-term water supply security and reliability during a special meeting on Thursday.
The water district Board of Directors voted unanimously to adopt a resolution approving a 50-year water supply agreement between the MWD and the City of Santa Barbara.
The Santa Barbara City Council will consider approval of the final water supply agreement next week and in July, according to MWD consultant Clean Energy Capital.
The multimillion-dollar deal calls for Santa Barbara to sell 1,430 acre-feet of water a year to Montecito from its desalination plant for the next 50 years. The MWD would pay for the committed volume of water in every year, whether or not water is needed, according to the consultant’s presentation.
The estimated unit cost of water in accordance with the agreement is $3,194 per acre-foot based on the current production capacity of Santa Barbara’s desalination plant, the MWD staff report stated.
“People should feel pretty satisfied that for a pretty reasonable price, we are going a long way toward drought-proofing Montecito,” water board director Tobe Plough said. “Desalination is a reliable source of water on this side of the mountain. That’s something we are missing.”
If mutually approved by Santa Barbara and the MWD, the contract execution is expected in mid-August. If everything goes as planned, water deliveries will commence Jan. 1, 2022.
The agreement would make 40 percent of the district’s annual water supply needs nearly 100 percent reliable and would be independent of precipitation, which helps avoid future water supply shortages, according to the district.
The MWD provides water service to Montecito, Summerland and Toro Canyon.
The district’s water supplies are solely relying on rainfall-dependent sources, including the State Water Project, the Cachuma Project, Jameson Lake, Doulton Tunnel, groundwater supplies and supplemental water.
The MWD projections of long-term water supply availability — detailed in a report prepared by Steve Bachman, a well-known water resources management expert — indicates moderate to extensive shortages experienced under certain anticipated conditions.
“We need another source of water,” water board director Brian Goebel said.
The MWD is pursuing the acquisition of reliable water supplies, water board president Floyd Wicks said.
The water supply agreement to use Santa Barbara’s desalination “provides our community with certainty and with supply,” Wicks said.
In 2018, Santa Barbara’s Charles E. Meyer Desalination Plant, 525 E. Yanonali St., resumed operations with a production capacity of 3,125 acre-feet of water a year.
The MWD has been in conversations with the city regarding desalination since 2014, according to consultant David Moore of Clean Energy Capital.
“We are at a historic moment,” Moore said.
Water Rates and Charges
Also on Thursday, after a public hearing, the water district board voted unanimously to adopt a resolution approving a five-year schedule for water rates and charges.
The district’s new rates will take effect Friday, and customers will see the changes on their August invoices.
Based on the rate study analysis that supported the change, about 56 percent of district customers will see their monthly water bill decrease or remain about the same through July 2021, assuming water usage remains the same, the district said.
In a presentation to the board at the special meeting, Raftelis consultants said the five-year plan proposes a 2.8 percent increase in annual revenue for fiscal years 2021 through 2025. The additional revenue will provide for operation and capital costs, maintain adequate reserve balances and meet existing debt service obligations, according to the MWD.
Click here to use a rate calculator and view the effects.
The new rate structure will eliminate a so-called water shortage emergency surcharge implemented in 2015 to fund unforeseen expenses resulting from California’s drought.
The new water rates and monthly meter charges are based on a study done by Raftelis, in collaboration with the MWD.
More than 15 protest letters were sent to the MWD, so the comments received did not constitute a majority of all customers. The district serves more than 4,600 customers, MWD General Manager Nick Turner said.
The district’s rates have not changed since 2016, and rate plans typically are implemented between three and five years.
“Rewarding conservation was an important consideration in restructuring the rates, and the small-volume user is going to come out ahead,” Ken Coates, MWD director and finance committee member, said in a statement.
More than 50 people, including MWD staff and the water district board, attended Thursday’s remote meeting.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
