Council receives water supply report

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

As a steady rain fell outside City Hall, Santa Barbara city leaders inside discussed a topic intricately tied to rainfall: the city’s Water Supply Management Report for the 2007 water year.
While the report serves as a summarization of water management activities during the past 12 months, city officials took the opportunity to discuss future issues that may affect the city’s water supply.

“I would characterize it as cautiously optimistic,” Councilmember Helene Schneider said. “We’ll just have to see what happens these next couple of months.”
Although the Santa Barbara area just experienced the driest year in a century, acting water resources manager Rebecca Bjork reminded the Council that it is the first dry year of the current interval. She also said Lake Cachuma, the city’s primary source of water, is at 66 percent capacity and has enough water to cover several dry years.
“We believe we are in the initial dry year and it would be premature to request a Stage One drought,” Bjork said.
If the current rain season turns out to be below average, she said the Council would likely have to consider taking that step — officially declaring the potential for a water shortage in the next three years.
“I think my feelings are a little bit different,” Councilmember Das Williams said. “There are two things that could happen. Either it’s not going to rain much, in which case we will ask for a voluntary 10 percent reduction from Cachuma … or it’s going to rain a lot.”
If it does rain heavily, Williams said the city will face not only siltation problems in Lake Cachuma and Gibraltar Reservoir, but water quality issues as well.
“My logic is if there are two things that could happen and they both require us to use less water, why don’t we start right now?” Williams said.
He suggested requiring new construction downtown to hook up to recycled water for toilets and landscaping. He also brought up the idea of starting a “cash for grass” program.
“And no, this has nothing to do with marijuana,” he said, explaining that the city would pay a nominal fee to encourage property owners to convert lawn turf to drought-resistant, native plants.
Bjork reiterated a focus on the city’s conservation program, urging the public to visit www.santabarbaraca.gov/water to find tips and rebates that will help them reduce their water consumption.
Due to an increase in irrigation use during the dry summer months, the city’s water demand jumped to 15,00 acre feet this year, above the normal demand of 14,000 acre feet.
“We’re hoping that this is an anomaly,” Bjork said. “We want to take this opportunity to remind people to be careful in their water use.”
She also discussed the impact that the Zaca Fire, which burned 60 percent of the watershed that drains to the Gibraltar Reservoir, will have on that portion of the city’s water resources. Temporary sedimentation basins and debris racks will help mitigate sedimentation impacts in the reservoir, she said, adding that the city has always planned on a loss of capacity due to siltation.
“It may just happen sooner than we thought,” she said.
In summarizing the report, Bjork said water supplies are currently sufficient to meet the goals of the city’s long-term water supply plan and regular updates will be given to City Council in the coming months.