The Santa Barbara County Grand Jury believes the contract governing the Cachuma Project is outdated and the maximum supply of water on paper is not the actual supply available, according to an 18-page report the body released Thursday.
Cachuma Lake, the county's main reservoir, supplies most of the South County — Santa Barbara, Goleta, Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria — and the Santa Ynez Valley with water, and it's currently at 14.7 percent capacity with just 28,373-acre-feet of water.
An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or the amount of water generally needed to supply the annual needs of four to 10 people in an urban environment.
The reservoir has a capacity of 193,305 acre feet, and has provided up to 85 percent of the water needs to approximately 340,000 acres of agriculture and 250,000 residents. Its water supply has been allocated with the goal of lasting over a six- to seven-year drought cycle.
"The lake was last full to the point of spilling in March 2011 and after four years, the lake was virtually dry," the report reads. "This reality indicates that the contract is outdated. The maximum supply of water on paper is not the actual supply available, and the supplies from Lake Cachuma are over allocated."
The 1995 master contract between the United States Bureau of Reclamation and the Santa Barbara County Water Agency for water service for the Cachuma Project is up for renewal in 2020, and the grand jury is recommending that the contract be updated during the next renewal process.
Jurors want to see the annual safe yield of the reservoir recalculated based on the water available, with the recalculation taking into account lower reservoir capacity due to siltation, demands for downstream water rights and federal requirements to maintain fish habitat that didn't exist when the current contract was first approved.
The report also recommends that the contract should require frequent reviews to address changing water needs, while also evaluating a new operating mode that distributes water at an annual rate to maximize the efficient use of the lake.
County Deputy Director of Water Resources Tom Fayram agrees with the grand jury's report and its conclusions, saying that the calculation supply for the reservoir hasn't kept up with changes over time, such as increased sedimentation in the lake and downstream water rights.
"You can drive by the lake," Fayram said about the depleted supply. "It's proved itself over time."
The report, "Lake Cachuma – Protecting a Valuable Resource, You Can’t Drink Paper Water," can be viewed online at www.sbcgj.org.
May 21, 2016
Lompoc Record
By April Charlton
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