Santa Barbara to See Surge in State Water Deliveries

Thanks to Recent Storms, State Expects to Deliver 30 Percent of Requested Water Supplies in 2023

A drone provides a view of water pumped from the Harvey O. Banks Delta Pumping Plant into the California Aqueduct at 9,790 cubic feet per second after January storms. Photo taken January 20, 2023. Credit: California Department of Water Resources

Recent storms have boosted California’s water supply, allowing the State Water Project (SWP) to increase its water delivery to 29 public water agencies serving 27 million Californians across the state, including in Santa Barbara.

On Thursday, the state Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced that, based on the amount of water captured and stored in recent weeks, it expects to be able to deliver 30 percent of requested water supplies — or 1.27 million acre feet — to local agencies in 2023, up from the initial 5 percent announced on December 1, 2022.

The state’s increased deliveries is “good news for communities and farms in the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California,” Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday. “We’ll keep pushing to modernize our water infrastructure to take advantage of these winter storms and prepare communities for the climate-driven extremes of wet and dry ahead.”