Central Coast, Hit Hard by Drought, Hunts for Water

Morro Bay is the driest community in the driest region of the state during the driest period in almost 60 years--and every night, residents go to sleep not knowing if there will be enough water to get them through the next day.

The critical time is 7:30 a.m., when a city worker checks the 11 water storage tanks that are automatically refilled each night from nearby wells. If any of the wells, which are at dangerously low levels, dry up and the tanks are not refilled, residents face a crisis.

“If we don’t get any rain, the question of when we’ll go dry is a matter of days, hours or even minutes,” said Nick Nichols, Morro Bay’s director of public works. “I don’t go too far from the phone.”

Although the entire state is suffering from a severe drought, the water shortage along the Central Coast between Santa Barbara and Monterey is the most severe. No region in California has been so far below its average rainfall with such low reservoir levels and so little runoff.

The lack of rainfall has devastated the area because it is not connected to any water sources in Northern California or to Colorado River water. The Central Coast relies almost entirely on local reservoirs and ground water supplies.

If the drought continues, many communities in the region could soon face a water shortage as critical as Morro Bay’s. As a result, the Central Coast has initiated an unprecedented array of programs to prepare for life without rain.

Many of these communities--including Morro Bay--are banking on desalination to solve their water problems. Plans are under way to build a number of crash desalination plants that will deliver water before wells and reservoirs run dry.

The longstanding controversy over whether the Central Coast should tie into the State Water Project has resurfaced because of the prolonged drought. Most communities are partners in the project and pay fees to ensure entitlement to the water. But they have not received a drop because, fearful of growth, they refused to build a connecting aqueduct. Communities throughout the area are expected to vote in June on whether to fund the aqueduct and import state water.

Until the desalination plants are complete, and until state water is available--it could take five years to build a connecting aqueduct to the project--communities are scrambling for emergency supplies that will get them through the next year. Goleta is considering importing water by tanker from Canada. Montecito is drilling wells in the hills east of town. Santa Barbara is using treated sewage effluent to water city parks and golf courses.

To pay for emergency supplies and to prepare for costly desalination plants, water rates are skyrocketing. In Santa Barbara, the average water bill has doubled in the last year, from about $10 a month to $20, and could go up another 50% when the plant is built. In Goleta, rates have tripled since 1988, to about $24 a month.

“If this drought continues, water rates may triple again,” said Katherine Crawford, president of the Goleta Water District board of directors. “The days of cheap water in California are over.”

In Morro Bay, a seaside community of 10,000 midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the price of water is not the primary concern. Residents just want to ensure that when they turn on their faucets, something comes out.

City officials have drawn up plans to obtain emergency supplies within 24 hours if their wells run dry. They may tap into a pipeline to San Luis Obispo’s main reservoir, temporarily draw water from a well at a county golf course, or quickly install an above-ground pipeline to link up with a nearby college’s water supply.

Residents are trying to hold off until July, when a temporary desalination plant is scheduled to be completed. It could provide two-thirds of the city’s needs. Some residents say that the city, which relies entirely on underground water supplies, is cutting it too close and should have been better prepared for another year of drought.

Last year, the city had 12 wells, but one by one they have been drying up. Morro Bay is down to four wells, all of them running perilously low.

Most neighboring communities on the Central Coast instituted water rationing last year, raised water rates and ordered Draconian water conservation measures. Morro Bay, some residents complain, has done little but pray for rain.

The city has not instituted rationing, raised water rates, banned lawn watering or closed its two carwashes--or even required them to use recycled water.

Even Sandy Ford, the city’s water conservation officer, criticized the City Council for moving too slowly. “We’re in such a dangerous situation already,” she said. “I can’t understand why we haven’t done more.”

Mayor Rose Marie Sheetz contends that the council reflects the views of residents. While neighboring communities have strong environmental movements, she said, Morro Bay is populated mostly by elderly, retired people, and they are “less aware of the environmental situation and less willing to make sacrifices.”

The situation is so critical that the City Council has been forced to act. At the next council meeting, Sheetz said, she will push for rationing and other extreme water saving measures.

During the past year, Santa Barbara residents have endured the state’s strictest conservation laws--including a ban on lawn watering--and, as a result, have cut water use by almost 50%. Yet, without significant rainfall, the city could run out of water by next year.

One of the city’s two reservoirs went dry last year, and the second, Lake Cachuma, is at 15% of capacity. Reservoirs throughout the Central Coast are at critically low levels--at 9% of capacity, compared with an average of 32% for the rest of the state.

Santa Barbara officials hope desalination will solve the city’s water woes. Final environmental approval for the Santa Barbara plant is expected next month. It should begin delivering potable water by spring of next year. The water will be expensive--about $1,900 an acre-foot, compared to about $200 an acre-foot for treated reservoir water. An acre-foot is about 325,000 gallons, considered a year’s supply for two families.

Until its desalination plant is built, Santa Barbara, a city known for its lush gardens and expansive lawns, will continue to wither. Lawns are straw-colored patches of grass; trees are desiccated and dying. The hillsides north of town, usually covered with a deep green sheen, are the color of sand.

In Goleta, 12,000 avocado trees at Rancho Dos Pueblos died last year because of the drought. The remains of these trees, a huge mound of firewood, are for sale and piled beside a surviving orchard.

Goleta is counting on desalination to provide enough water to save its agricultural community. Along with several other local communities, Goleta is planning to buy desalinated water from Santa Barbara until its plant is completed. The city has hired a Vancouver law firm to determine if it is feasible to import water from British Columbia by ocean-going tankers.

San Luis Obispo also is committed to building a desalination plant, and Monterey is conducting a feasibility study. To conserve its dwindling supplies, San Luis Obispo has prohibited all commercial and residential construction, unless builders retrofit existing structures with water-saving devices that will conserve as much water as the new buildings are expected to use.

In Monterey, no new businesses are licensed if they use more water than a single-family home. This rules out all hotel and motel construction, large commercial projects and most restaurants.

Long before this drought, voters in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo rejected bond measures to raise money to build an aqueduct that would connect coastal areas to the State Water Project. Now, some residents, particularly those with business and development interests, rue that decision. Bumper stickers pushing for state water are proliferating around Santa Barbara. Water has been a key issue in recent political campaigns.

“If we already had state water we wouldn’t be in this position now,” said Steve Decker, treasurer of We Want Water, a group that is pushing a ballot initiative in Santa Barbara. “Santa Barbara is not the beautiful city it once was.”

Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, and a section of Monterey County, have long been partners in the project, which transports water through a series of dams and aqueducts in Northern California to water districts throughout the state.

Many residents and political leaders have traditionally been opposed to state water because they fear that greater water resources will result in more development, which would create new water shortages. Opponents also say the project is unreliable, and point out that state officials recently announced that they might reduce the flow of Northern California water into Southland cities by as much as 85%.

“Before the drought this issue wouldn’t have had a chance around here,” said Bendy White, a Santa Barbara water commissioner. “But we’re facing a disaster, and people are scared. They want water, and they don’t care where it comes from.”

CENTRAL COAST RESERVOIRS--WATER LEVELS

Here are the major reservoirs in the Central Coast with their location and water levels.

Santa Barbara County:

1. Gibraltar Reservoir: 0% of capacity.

2. Lake Cachuma: 15% of capacity.

San Luis Obispo County:

3. Whale Rock Reservoir: 30% of capacity.

4. Salinas Reservoir: 0% of capacity.

5. Lake Nacimiento: 6% of capacity.

Monterey County:

6. Lake San Antonio: 5% of capacity.