If Santa Barbara County continues to be bypassed by rainfall, Lake Cachuma could dry up by as early as next fall, according to a sobering presentation given to the county’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
The supervisors expressed concern that the region needed to do more to conserve water and urged the public to treat the water crisis as just that. The board also got an update on the pump back-up system being installed at Lake Cachuma.
County supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to receive and filed the presentation.
The presentation began as an update on the pumps installed at Lake Cachuma that work to pump water when the normal gravity-fed system doesn’t come through. When levels of water are low, it must be pumped out of the lake.
The transition to the pump system has been a rocky one, however.
Various failures of the pumping system occurred in 2013 and again in 2014, when the system completely broke down over Memorial Day, according to Michael Jackson of the Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that owns and operates the pumps.
The pumps help feed water into Hilton Creek, which is a habitat for the endangered steelhead trout. Hilton Creek connects to the Santa Ynez River, which runs to Surf Beach in wet years, where the fish migrate down and back.
When the pumps failed this year, hundreds of fish died as a result, Jackson said.
Since that time, a contractor has been hired to install an emergency back-up power system.
In the second portion of the presentation, Monica Miller of Governmental Advocates went over much of the statewide legislation around water, including the Legislature’s approval of a $7.54 billion water bond that voters will be asked to approve this fall.
During public comment, officials from the Environmental Defense Center said the Bureau of Reclamation had left the pumps to fail 11 times, which resulted in 400 fish deaths.
The EDC’s Brian Trautwein said the fish species is one of the most endangered in the country and said water from the dam should be released on a regular schedule to support the fish as well as recharge the groundwater basins in Lompoc and other locations.
Lauren Hanson of the Cachuma Operation Maintenance Board said the board has been working for years to improve conditions for steelhead, despite the problems with the pumps, and improved habitat of the creek has resulted.
County Flood Control Director Tom Fayram also spoke, saying the lake will be down to its minimum pool by October 2015 is it doesn’t rain.
That prompted Supervisor Janet Wolf to urge the public to continue to conserve water.
“That’s one of the big messages that we have to get out of this hearing,” she said. “We are in a serious situation and we need to take responsibility.”
Others lamented that the water reductions municipalities are asking for are voluntary.
“Are we still in a critical state? If so, why are we allowing for the watering of lawns?” Supervisor Salud Carbajal said. “The crisis doesn’t match the action that has been put in place by all of our purveyors.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
