Anonymous
February 21, 2019, 9:46 am
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15 Comments
By an edhat reader
According to the official United States Drought Monitor site for the first time in 7 years we are back to normal.
Cachuma is still only at 60% but our area is no longer classified as being in drought or even abnormally dry. We are classified as normal, but water conservation is still needed.
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I have a friend living in Goleta who said, a couple years ago, she was only supposed to water her yard after 8pm and only on certain days. She went to the Water Dept, said she is a senior and afraid to water after dark as she might trip and fall. They said she had to get a doctor’s recommendation she be allowed to water earlier. Meanwhile, huge condo developments were being built in Goleta and water didn’t seem to be any problem for them. Double standards?
The original link and source for this story is fairly authoritative. That said I agree that conservation is and will always be a good thing. To help get an accurate assessment of our local situation we obviously have the US Drought Monitor site mentioned above which uses a wide range of resources as I noted in an earlier post. We also have the wonderful resource found at http://rain.cosbpw.net which lets us know how much rainfall we’ve had as well as the status of the key reservoirs (e.g., Cachuma currently at 60% – the highest level in, I believe, at least 5 years). There have been a number of posts stating that the local aquifers / water tables are still very low. I have no doubt that they will take some time to recover. For those who have pointed this out or anyone else, do you have a site / source you can reference similar to the other two mentioned in this post where one can keep an eye on current data related to this key measure. I greatly appreciate having as many fact based resources as possible to draw on. Thanks in advance.
Very dangerous to publicize this information to the general public. We are definitely at a severe deficit of available water. The local aquifers and Lake Cachuma really need multiple years of surplus rain to replenish and get out of the danger zone. We are a long ways from that point.
Everyone really needs to continue to cut way back on water usage and not go back out and plant lawns to soak up precious resources. With all of the new building in Goleta and Santa Barbara, we are going to need a lot more water than you can imagine in the near future. Please CONSERVE!
Yeti. I agree with everything you say with the exception that it is “Very dangerous to publicize this information to the general public.” The general public has a right to know such things. If not, what other things should we be hiding from them for their own “good.”
Again, I agree with your other point that we should obviously still conserve water because we live in an area where the rain varies from year to year. That should be a message which is constantly reinforced. Obviously we also want to see Cachuma back at 100% and the water tables return to the appropriate level.
I agree with Yeti. Even during the drought, some of my neighbors were still watering when they weren’t supposed to. A lot of people think first about what’s convenient for them, not what is best for the common good. It’s no different from what happens when gasoline prices fluctuate — when they’re high, people buy small, fuel efficient cars. As soon as they go down, people are driving the gas guzzlers again.
Well. As soon as the Big People deem it necessary to go ahead with another release to recharge ground water for farm land; or to preserve watershed habitat for the last three remaining magical unicorn fish; they’ll open it up and drain it back down to newsworthy panic levels. Probably in two weeks. Stay tuned.
Maybe he means that the long-term yield of Cachuma, how much they can expect to get out of it on an annual basis, is less that they used to think due to climate change. A lot of these facilities were built with very optimistic estimates of available water because that made the costs seem more reasonable. Similar to the Colorado River which is over-allocated to the respective states by a bunch.
RHS, the data on the City website shows a pie chart of water sources during a non-drought year of: Cachuma 55%. State Water 2%. Gibraltar 27%. Groundwater 11%. Recycled Water for irrigation 5%. I can’t find similar numbers on their site for a drought year. So either you are talking about different things, or you have data that shows the City is lying. Which is it? santabarbaraca.gov gov depts pw resources system sources default.asp (replace the spaces with /).
No one is encouraging anyone to have more kids. People do that all on their own. I don’t have kids, but my mom and dad had 6 of them, and they have 9 grandchildren. Unfortunately the only way we are going to reduce the population in any meaningful way is through an epidemic or war. And when those occur, every mammal on the planet will be in jeopardy.
As a follow up, Tom Fayram, Deputy Public Works Director said in an interview yesterday that ground water levels are still low, and Lake Cachuma, which currently stands at 60 percent capacity, does not supply as much water as it used to. Can anyone clarify what he meant by that last comment? Does Cachuma not provide as much water because it has been so low of late or has the city surrendered / lost the right to use some of Cachuma’s water for other reasons?
There is so much water illiteracy out there. We are constantly bamboozled by those who have agendas such as creating more big ag. First, in SB groundwater hasn’t been a significant contributor to our needs since a century ago. It is about 6% of our supply. Second, Cachuma is basically a holding facility which contains water brought in by the State Water Project and then pumped into SB. This is about 30% or our water supply but can be adjusted as needed and available. Most of our local source water comes from Gibraltar which is 52% or use. Recycled water and some desalinated water is a small additional resource. BUT please note that the urban use of water statewide is less than 10% of CA consumption. Agriculture is over 80%. If agriculture simply saved about 10% it would erase any urban deficit easily but agriculture is the most wasteful consumer and by fire the lion’s share consumer of aquifer water which it is depleted without conscience. FINALLY pay attention to the demands for continued population growth. CA is already full. Let’s stop building housing and inviting more people and encouraging more children.
Rather than seeing the simplistic “level of Cachuma Reservoir”, I would like to see a statistic on the volume of available water in Cachuma. With all the silt deposition over the years, the water level is becoming more and more meaningless. Subtract the other water uses, such as the obligated release amounts needed to keep the Santa Ynez River alive.
I think everyone here is in full agreement that more rampant development is UNWANTED. Goleta is out of control! The heinous boxy condos they keep throwing up everywhere you look out there is bringing hordes of people and traffic to our coast. I don’t even go to Goleta anymore unless I have to, what a shame. Let’s STOP welcoming it. I’m sick of it.
And just because they published this report, doesn’t mean we can start wasting any precious water. As a native Californian, I know we are not out of the woods and drought is cyclical here. The rains were wonderful, and it sure is nice to see water levels rise in Cachuma and Casitas, but it’s not a license for us to waste water. RHS is correct, we need to also stop encouraging people to have more kids.
SBHOPE it would be nice if you could get straight answers to your honest questions from the city public works department but they tend to obfuscate to protect their agenda which as a lot to do with more construction and edifices. My understanding is their claim is that desalinated water COULD provide up to 30% if needed but it is incredibly expensive. Remember that the first desal plant wasn’t ever used! This white elephant will be probably used most to supply Montecito which has a much less reliable and more limited local supply and which has depleted its basins dramatically with private wells. So SB is paying big utility bills to subsidize Oprah and other Montecito big consumers!
The amount of water in Cachuma , Gibralter, and Juncal is not as much as it would have been when these dams were built. They have become silt basins over the many years of fires and floods and I guess dredging is not possible.