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Yahoo!While localities such as the City of Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Carpinteria seem to be awash with water resources for the time being, Montecito's water situation is not so bright. A week after the governor declared a statewide drought, Montecito finds itself in a situation similar to desert areas like Los Angeles and the Inland Empire. Being a narrow strip of land sandwiched between the coastal mountain range and the ocean, Montecito has very little area where groundwater could be stored. In addition, when rain falls, it doesn't have much distance to travel and get soaked up by the ground before running into waterways and then the ocean. However, Tom Moseby, the General Manager of the Montecito Water District, pointed to another factor contributing to Montecito's water shortfall that can be controlled: consumption.
Currently, 75 to 80 percent of the water used in Montecito is used for gardens and landscaping. "Due to the size of the properties here and people's love for their gardens, we’re really using a lot of water," said Moseby, noting that Montecitans use more water per capita than anywhere else on the South Coast, including the La Cumbre Water District, which services the Hope Ranch. According to Moseby's figures, Santa Barbara city residents use a third as much water as Montecito, while Hope Ranch residents use about 21 percent less water on average. "It's all about customer usage and bringing them back to a level we can sustain," he said.
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In other words, a typical Montecito resident uses
**three times as much water**
as a typical Santa Barbara Resident.
I've never heard that before. I sure hope no-one in Montecito carps about `finite resources', given their profligate consumption of water.
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sevendolphins (anonymous profile)
June 14, 2008 at 11:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Now that even Governor Schwartzenegger has declared a statewide drought, communities throughout the west are feeling the effects of a prolonged and likely permanent drought, and even Montecito is starting to feel the effects don't you think it would be a wonderful time for the GOLETA WATER DISTRICT to annex some agricultural land on the Gaviota coast. Just the perfect solution; build big mansions for rich out of towners, destroy much needed agricultural land close to urban areas and use up our limited supplies of water all so we can destroy the last pristine coastal chapparal in southern California. Good plan Goleta Water Board.
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Noletaman (anonymous profile)
June 14, 2008 at 3:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Welll - something to keep in mind the following discussions / stories come up:
1. Montecito votes to annex Santa Barbara (water rights blamed)
2. Montecito Country Club can't understand where all of the water is going - runs hose secretly under fence to tap into SB supply
and so on....
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BeachLivin (anonymous profile)
June 16, 2008 at 6:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Oh yeah...re 7 dolphins
The Goleta Water District isn't like those other districts, it says...the board uses an attorney who represents both developers who want rezoning and water - and the Water District...no problem, no conflict of interest there, say board members, who refuse to bring in an outside expert on legal ethics to look at the matter.
Mr attorney said rolling over unused water allocations was OK - even when ordinance passed by voters prohibits just such action.
And keep prevaricating about documents prepared for the city of Goleta re water supply...good going staff man and board members!
In November, 3 seats are up for grabs on this board.
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mangomamma (anonymous profile)
June 16, 2008 at 9:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
BeachLivin wrote "Montecito Country Club can't understand where all of the water is going - runs hose secretly under fence to tap into SB supply"
Doesn't the Montecito Country Club, which is actually in Santa Barbara city limits, already get it's water from Santa Barbara?
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art (anonymous profile)
June 16, 2008 at 9:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
... obviously the price of water to Montecito users is well below the cost of supply.
Quit yapping like a bunch of Goleta water wackos and get price and supply in some sort of equilibrium.
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wingnut (anonymous profile)
June 18, 2008 at 3:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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