Not a Drop to Spare
Sustainable Water Management for the South Coast
Early in the 2014-15 school year, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper proposed a Master's Group Project to the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management for then-first-year students to complete in partial requirement of their Master's of Environmental Science and Management degrees. The Group Projects and teams were announced in early spring, and the SB Water team began their research on regional water management, an approach not often taken in water planning. The group quickly saw most water planning studies focus on either an individual district or the entire state; localized studies that incorporate adjacent districts sharing resources are rare.
After reaching out to local water agencies, Santa Barbara County officials, and external advisors, SB Water began delving into the costs and feasibility of different water supply options in five local water districts: Goleta Water District, La Cumbre Mutual Water Co., the City of Santa Barbara, Montecito Water District, and Carpinteria Valley Water District. Each district is distinct and operates independently.
Check out the Project Proposal from Santa Barbara Channelkeeper.
Each South Coast water district has very distinct water supply portfolios:
Local sources include Lake Cachuma, other local surface water bodies, State Water Project deliveries and market exchanges, groundwater, and recycled water. In most years, water from Cachuma comprised the majority of total water production. The proportion of water from each supply option over this period is broken down:
SB Water continued to work on the project over the summer. In addition to water supply, the team began analyzing the financial, energy, and environmental implications of these water sources. SB Water compiled data from local district budgets, construction bids, Santa Barbara County Public Works, stakeholder consultations, and literature reviews to track financial costs, energy demands, and environmental impacts of existing water supply sources. Additionally, SB Water modeled the propsective water produced from potential future water supply options for the region, including greywater, rainwater cisterns, stormwater capture, potable reuse, and conservation and efficiency programs. GIS surveys of the local natural and manmade landscapes were used to estimate water savings from these hypothetical sources for the South Coast.