State awards $2 million to Cachuma Lake pumping project

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Cachuma Lake’s previous shoreline is brown and dry as the water level continues to drop because of sustained drought conditions. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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White earth attests to the lower water level in Johnson Bay at Cachuma Lake. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Jeff Bozarth, supervising ranger at Cachuma Lake Recreation Area, stands in a dry area of the lake that had been filled with water just last March. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Bozarth patrols Cachuma Lake, the source of drinking water for 200,000 people on the southern coast of Santa Barbara County. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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The docks at Cachuma Lake marina are hundreds of feet from the high-water shoreline. As the lake continues to recede, employees move the dock farther from shore. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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The docks and boat launch ramps are high and dry at Cachuma Lake marina. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Water marks on the concrete and dry ground are exposed near the spillway at Bradbury Dam. The dam was finished in 1953, built to rein in the water of the Santa Ynez River, forming a reservoir -- Cachuma Lake -- for a booming stretch of California. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Barren shoreline is exposed in Cachuma Bay. Cachuma Lake, which is at 39.7% of capacity, has been in trouble before. In 1990 and 1991, water levels were even lower. But then the rains came. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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The intake structure on Cachuma Lake is exposed as the lake level continues to drop. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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Plywood is used as a bridge over soggy ground as the docks at Cachuma Lake marina move farther from shore. It is difficult to overstate the impact of the drought on Cachuma. Chunks of the past are strewn about the former lake bed as the water recedes. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

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A boater on Cachuma Lake. “It’s still a beautiful place. I love it. I’m so glad I work here,” said Jeff Bozarth, the ranger. “But this is sad. It’s just sad.” (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

By Amanda Covarrubias

Jan. 23, 2015 1:29 PM PT

Santa Barbara County water agencies announced Friday that they will receive $2 million in state funding for a pumping project at Cachuma Lake -- a source of drinking water for 220,000 people on the southern central coast -- where water levels have dropped precipitously low.

As the California drought drags on, conditions have jeopardized the lake’s gravity-fed system that supplies water to customers. If the situation does not improve, officials may have to begin pumping at the end of April or early May, said Randy Ward, general manager of the Cachuma Operation and Maintenance Board.

The lake provides drinking water to the cities of Goleta and Santa Barbara, Montecito and Carpinteria. If water levels reach a certain low point -- dependent on demand, temperature and rain -- gravity will no longer work as a way of getting water out of lake, and it will have to be pumped out, Ward said.

The pump is already in place, but if the state money had not come through, customers would have had to bear the burden of paying for the $5-million system through higher water rates, said state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), who worked with Assemblyman Das Williams (D-Carpinteria) to secure the funding.

Cachuma Lake, which is at 28% capacity, is disappearing with little hope that conditions will improve anytime soon.

“When you can drive along the lake bed, you know you have a problem,” Jackson said Friday.

Before the drought, Cachuma “spilled” — filled to the brim, to the point where millions of gallons of clean, fresh water were released through the dam’s gates to flow to the sea.

The reservoir has been in trouble before. In 1990 and 1991, water levels were even lower. Back then, some residents were catching excess shower water in buckets to use to flush their toilets.

Now, chunks of the past are strewn about the exposed lakebed as the water recedes — overturned rowboats, anchors, buoys, maritime cables, even fishing lures that snagged on branches perhaps decades ago.

The money was awarded by the State Water Resources Control Board and the state Department of Water Resources.

Times staff writer Scott Gold contributed to this report.

For Central Coast news, follow @amcovarrubias.