Montecito Board Approves Historic 50 Year Water Supply Agreement with Santa Barbara

Noozhawk released the following excerpted article on June 25, 2020.

Montecito Board Approves Historic 50 Year Water Supply Agreement with Santa Barbara

MONTECITO -- The Montecito Water District took a major step forward to improve long-term water supply security and reliability during a special meeting on Thursday.

The Water District Board of Directors voted unanimously to adopt a resolution approving a 50-year water supply agreement between the MWD and the City of Santa Barbara.

The Santa Barbara City Council will consider approval of the final Water Supply Agreement next week and in July, according to MWD consultant Clean Energy Capital.

The multimillion-dollar deal calls for Santa Barbara to sell 1,430 acre-feet of water a year to Montecito from its desalination plant for the next 50 years. The MWD would pay for the committed volume of water in every year, whether or not water is needed, according to the consultant's presentation.

The estimated unit cost of water in accordance with the agreement is $3,194 per acre-foot based on the current production capacity of Santa Barbara's desalination plant, the MWD staff report stated.

“People should feel pretty satisfied that for a pretty reasonable price, we are going a long way toward drought-proofing Montecito,” water board director Tobe Plough said. “Desalination is a reliable source of water on this side of the mountain. That’s something we are missing.”

If mutually approved by Santa Barbara and the MWD, the contract execution is expected in mid-August. If everything goes as planned, water deliveries will commence Jan. 1, 2022.

The agreement would make 40 percent of the district’s annual water supply needs nearly 100 percent reliable and would be independent of precipitation, which helps avoid future water supply shortages, according to the district.

The MWD provides water service to Montecito, Summerland and Toro Canyon.

The District’s water supplies are solely relying on rainfall-dependent sources, including the State Water Project, the Cachuma Project, Jameson Lake, Doulton Tunnel, groundwater supplies and supplemental water.

The MWD projections of long-term water supply availability — detailed in a report prepared by Steve Bachman, a well-known water resources management expert — indicates moderate to extensive shortages experienced under certain anticipated conditions. 

“We need another source of water,” water board director Brian Goebel said. 

The MWD is pursuing the acquisition of reliable water supplies, Water Board President Floyd Wicks said.

The Water Supply Agreement to use Santa Barbara's desalination “provides our community with certainty and with supply,” Wicks said.

In 2018, Santa Barbara’s Charles E. Meyer Desalination Plant, 525 E. Yanonali St., resumed operations with a production capacity of 3,125 acre-feet of water a year.

The MWD has been in conversations with the City regarding desalination since 2014, according to consultant David Moore of Clean Energy Capital.

“We are at an historic moment,” Moore said.

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More than 50 people, including MWD staff and the Water District Board, attended Thursday’s remote meeting.

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Clean Energy Capital serves as Financial Advisor to Montecito Water District.