Goleta Water District to Issue New Water Permits in January

[Click to enlarge] New water allocations in 2024 will feed projects within the boundaries of the Goleta Water District, which extend from the City of Santa Barbara to El Capitan, up to 154.7 acre-feet.

For the first time in a decade, Goleta Water District will issue new water permits, as the district’s Board of Directors affirmed in a vote Tuesday evening. Four factors went into the decision, but the upshot is that 154.7 acre-feet of new water hookups will be available as of January 2024 on a first-come first-served basis. To put those 5 million gallons into perspective, the water would supply roughly 1,050 apartments.

The Water District customer base goes beyond the City of Goleta, running from the City of Santa Barbara border on the east all the way to El Capitan to the west. This area includes the majority of the rezoning the county will do to satisfy the state Housing Element as it places about 4,000 new units of housing in South County. The City of Goleta itself faces around 1,800 new units in the next eight years, per the state rules. Some of those parcels already have water entitlements, but it remains obvious that good rain years, like the one that filled Lake Cachuma full to overflowing in 2023, will be necessary to keep up with the state housing mandate.

Drought was the dominant factor in the establishment of the 2014 moratorium, and it was the factor that led to the building of Bradbury Dam by 1952, which holds back Lake Cachuma, Goleta Water District’s largest source. The apportionment from Cachuma went from zero in October 2022 to 100 percent the following February, and the full allocation continues this water year. The wet winter also allowed the district to inject water into its storage basin, fulfilling its annual storage commitment.

This all puts the district’s supply at 15,472 acre-feet for the rain year, of which one percent may be issued to new water users. If the entire amount were issued, it would add up to about $9.6 million in connection fees, said Ryan Drake, district’s water supply manager. The forecast so far is for another rainy winter, with Cachuma at 89 percent full today. If a drought should resurface despite predictions, Drake believed Cachuma’s status would tend to continue a full water allocation for 2024-2025.