The Montecito Water District isn’t taking no for an answer and will approach state agencies for support in its attempt to partner up with Santa Barbara’s desalination facility.
Even though the water district was an original stakeholder of Santa Barbara’s desalination facility in the 1990s, it left that arrangement and isn’t included in the City of Santa Barbara’s plans to restart the seawater-to-potable-water facility next year.
The Charles E. Meyer Desalination Plant’s permits don’t designate it as a regional facility, so its past partners — Montecito and Goleta — that helped build and operate the plant before it was mothballed can’t be served if it starts delivering water again.
The Montecito Water District is heading to the regional state water board with two options: Support regional participation at Santa Barbara’s plant, or the district will continue plans to build its own desalination facility.
“The only way Santa Barbara is going to talk to us is if the state supports regional use,” Montecito general manager Tom Mosby said. “That’s what this is all about for us, this is going to be a very important pivotal meeting moving forward desalination in Montecito.”
The issue is scheduled to be heard by the Central Coast Region Water Quality Control Board soon, according to Mosby.
“I feel very comfortable and very confident in the event the city does allow participation, it would be very successful and regional use would be a win-win for ratepayers for both agencies,” he said.
Montecito’s choice leave the desalination partnership in the 1990s “was an unfortunate decision that has complicated and restricted our ability to help our neighbor during this unprecedented drought,” Santa Barbara water resources manager Joshua Haggmark said. “I believe if the State Water Resources Control Board wanted to support a regional desalination facility, the city would be receptive to discussing how we could help our neighbor.
“Without knowing their needs for water and what SWRCB was willing to do to support a regional desalination facility it is premature to speculate what the impacts would be to our schedule or permits.”
The Santa Barbara City Council is expected to award a construction contract to get the desalination plant operational as soon as June.
At a recent Santa Barbara meeting, Councilwoman Cathy Murillo mentioned the city was looking into solar power for the facility. The electric costs to power the high-pressure reverse-osmosis process were substantial when the plant was operating.
Solar power will be part of the desalination discussion, Haggmark confirmed. It may not be practical to do in Santa Barbara, or during the current drought, but it will likely be discussed during upcoming council meetings, he said.
Montecito expects its own desalination plant to cost $60 million to $80 million to build, after submitting it as an emergency project that will become a permanent water supply.
Feasibility studies identified potential intake and discharge locations — to pump in seawater and pump out the briny waste of the desalination process — along the coastline and consultants are focusing on the Santa Barbara Cemetery site.
The 2016-17 water year is looking dire for the district, assuming that there will be no surface water coming from Lake Cachuma, the State Water Project or Jameson Lake, Mosby said.
Santa Barbara expects to get its desalination facility operational next year, if it’s approved by the state and the Santa Barbara City Council moves forward, and Montecito could get emergency permit status by the end of 2016 for its own facility, Mosby said.
— Noozhawk news editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.