Santa Barbara County isn’t yet facing a local emergency regarding drought conditions, and local reservoirs are far fuller than its state-controlled counterparts.

That was the consensus presented to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors Oct. 21, which heard a report on planning for drought due to statewide conditions.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought in June due to low rainfall, reduced snow pack and diminished run-off forecasts.

 

Currently, Cachuma Lake is at 91 percent capacity and the Gibraltar reservoir is 70 percent full, said Matt Naftaly, water agency manager.

In contrast, three vital state reservoirs, Oroville, Shasta and Folsom, all have capacities hovering around the 30 percent mark.

The state water project will deliver only about 35 percent of requests from California communities that bought into state water this year.

The county has put in place a cloud-seeding program for the winter that will target the Twitchell reservoir to increase rainfall amounts.

Santa Barbara county residents currently do not face any mandated conservation requirements, said public works director Tom Fayram.

 

However, residents are urged to reduce and reuse water whenever possible by doing things like buying more efficient appliances or planting drought-resistant landscaping.

The county is said to be in good shape water-wise due to its diversification of water sources, including surface water, ground water, state water and water recycling efforts.

Only the Cuyama Valley, one of the county’s groundwater basins, is currently considered in overdraft, Naftlay said.

The majority of Santa Ynez Valley water users receive their water from the Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District, Improvement District. No. 1. The district draws its water supply from wells that pump ground water out of the Santa Ynez Uplands Groundwater Basin and state water, which made up 43 percent of the district’s total supply in 2007.

That information is from the district’s annual water quality report.

The supervisors did not take any action on any water issues, but simply received and filed the staff report.

 

Reach staff writer Leah Etling at letling@syvjournal.com.