Board responds to grand jury report
Although the Santa Barbara County grand jury would like to see the county's Water Agency become the lead organization for implementing water policy throughout the region, such a move isn't feasible.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to submit required responses to a recent grand jury report titled "Managing Regional Water Supplies, Are There Better Solutions?," which included informing jurors the county won't be designating its Water Agency the permanent lead agency for implementation of policy to ensure reliability of supplies.
While each water purveyor throughout the county has authority over the sources they own and control, there are other sources more regionally operated, which hampers moving forward with the recommendation. One example is state water, which is controlled by Sacramento but delivered to participants by a local entity, the Central Coast Water Authority.
"The recommendation will not be implemented," the supervisors penned in an Aug. 22 letter to the jury's presiding judge. "Organizationally, the county Water Agency has no statutory authority over the different water purveyors in the county, unless and until the authority were to change, this recommendation is not feasible."
The 2016-17 grand jury investigated "the serious problem of drought within the county," making nine findings and nine recommendations related to its report released in mid-June. The Board of Supervisors was named as a responder to three of the findings and three of the recommendations, all discussed Tuesday.
The 28-page report looked at the adequacy and reliability of the present water delivery system in the county; what steps can be taken to provide additional sources of supply; and, if there is a better way to manage a regional supply system.
"I think the issues brought up in the report are extremely important and need to be taken seriously," said 1st District Supervisor Das Williams. "We have methods at our disposal regionally to provide us with more water ... the difficulty, of course, is regional cooperation."
Among the findings the board was required to respond to included utilizing desalination, specifically exploring use of Diablo Canyon's desal plant with neighboring San Luis Obispo County, and recycled water as an additional water supply.
Deputy Director of Water Resources Tom Fayram told the supervisors the county has had discussions with San Luis Obispo County about the Pacific Gas and Electric Co.-owned desal plant at Diablo Canyon and isn't sitting on the sidelines when it comes to water-involvement issues.
San Luis Obispo County initiated a project to look at constructing a pipeline from Diablo to the Five Cities to pump desal water from Diablo to the water-strapped area. However, PG&E plans to shutter Diablo in 2025, leaving the future of the desal plant up in the air.
"It leaves the question of the desal plant in limbo," Fayram said, adding it's probably still worth looking into the small plant as a potential additional water supply for the region.
The facility has the potential to produce up to 1.5 million gallons of fresh water a day, with Diablo using about 40 percent of what is generated. Fifth District Supervisor Peter Adam questioned whether the desal facility had the capacity to produce enough water for Santa Barbara County's needs.
"The plumbing isn't enough to get a whole lot through," Adam said.
August 22, 2017
Santa Ynez Valley News
By April Charlton
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