The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a proclamation of local emergency because of drought conditions, which comes a week after Gov. Gavin Newsom added the county to the list of California counties experiencing a drought and subject to the state emergency declaration.
The proclamation doesn’t come with any specific actions or policy changes, but it allows the county and water agencies to “take immediate actions to mitigate and respond to the current drought conditions,” according to the Office of Emergency Management.
“State Water Project deliveries are currently at 5% and are unlikely to improve without significant rain and snowpack next year,” the OEM staff report noted. “As of July 9, the capacity of Lake Cachuma is approximately 55.8% with approximately 107,777 acre-feet of total storage. The Gibraltar Reservoir (City of Santa Barbara’s reservoir) is now at less than 10% capacity, with approximately 400 acre-feet in storage. Jameson Reservoir (Montecito Water District reservoir) is at 69% capacity, with approximately 3,300 acre-feet in storage.”
Santa Barbara County is currently experiencing extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Local water agencies say they do not have supply shortages right now, but more below-normal rainfall years add stress to systems that have not yet recovered from the previous, multiyear drought.
“This additional very dry year on the statewide scale hits us,” Robert McDonald, general manager of the Carpinteria Valley Water District, told Noozhawk. “It’s just another insult to injury because we haven’t recovered.”
Groundwater basins were heavily pumped, reservoir levels dropped during years of below-average rainfall, and agencies received low amounts of water through State Water Project deliveries.
Many agencies looked outside the region for purchasing supplemental water, which was delivered to Lake Cachuma through the State Water Project pipeline system.
Districts accumulated “water debt” in addition to paying money for the water, and the Central Coast Water Authority, which operates the local state water program, asked the county for a policy change to allow outright purchases and sales rather than exchanges.
The Board of Supervisors approved the water management amendment this April, after months of deliberation.
Last year, many districts implemented water rate increases to pay for the rising costs of water supplies.
The Montecito Water District plans five years of water rate increases, partially to pay for its $4.3 million yearly contract purchasing water directly from the City of Santa Barbara. The 50-year purchase agreement is for 1,430 acre-feet of water, which is enough to meet a third of Montecito’s annual demand.
— 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.