This week’s El Niño storms have brought welcome rainfall — in significant amounts — to Santa Barbara County, but the impact on the multi-year drought gripping the region has been minimal.
“I’d say it’s a good start, but we’re going to need a lot more rain than this to overcome this drought,” said Tom Fayram, the county’s deputy public works director. “Really, it will take more then one good rain season.
“What we’re doing right now is we’re kind of laying the groundwork for, hopefully, runoff into the reservoirs later this year.”
Fayram explained that 10-15 inches of rain are needed during the rainy season before storms produce significant runoff into the reservoirs — Lake Cachuma, Gibraltar and Jameson — that serve as water supplies for southern Santa Barbara County and the Santa Ynez Valley.
“Cachuma hasn’t gotten any runoff from these storms,” Fayram said. “It only went up by the amount of rain that fell on it.”
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Gibraltar, which is upstream from Cachuma on the Santa Ynez River, only received a little more than 3 inches of rain from this week’s storm, Fayram noted, which means it has a ways to go before hitting the runoff threshold.
Location 24-Hour 48-Hour Buellton 1.41″ 2.25″ Lake Cachuma 0.96″ 2.38″ Carpinteria 1.78″ 3.22″ Goleta 1.77″ 3.47″ Gibraltar Lake 1.49″ 3.40″ Lompoc 0.79″ 1.78″ Montecito 1.55″ 3.19″ San Marcos Pass 1.54″ 3.86″ Santa Maria 0.44″ 0.86″ Solvang 1.07″ 2.23″ UCSB 1.72″ 3.23″
As of Wednesday morning, the county overall was at only 64 percent of normal rainfall for the season that began Sept. 1, although that figure is expected to rise with Wednesday’s precipitation.
The average rainfall for January generally is higher for the South Coast than the rest of the county, and ranges from 2.74 inches in Santa Maria up to 4.11 inches in Carpinteria, according to the county.
Despite this week’s dousing, local reservoir levels remained critically low: Cachuma was at 14.6 percent of capacity, while Gibraltar was at 8.1 percent, and Jameson was at 14.7 percent.
Cachuma stood at more than 88 feet below its spill level.
Local and state drought restrictions ban watering landscaping within 48 hours of measurable rainfall, which applies to all areas of Santa Barbara County after this week’s storms.
Most areas have limits on watering times and goals of conserving in order to maximize the water supply that’s left.
There is an increased focus on groundwater well pumping as surface water from reservoirs diminishes, and the city of Santa Barbara is rebuilding its seawater-to-potable water desalination facility.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.