[ From "Looking Down Both Barrels - Water Authorities Say South Coast Needs Another Pipe" by Ben Preston, SB Independent, September 3, 2009 ]


... Traveling nearly seven miles through the Santa Ynez Mountains in the Tecolote Tunnel and exiting near the top of Glen Annie Canyon north of Goleta, flow from Lake Cachuma provides Santa Barbara County’s South Coast with 80 percent of its water. Unfortunately, say water officials, the questionable reliability of having only one pipe running nearly 8,000 feet from the south portal of the Tecolote Tunnel — where Cachuma water exits the mountains — to Goleta’s Corona del Mar treatment plant creates a bottleneck that is difficult to overcome during high-demand summer months and leaves South Coast water customers vulnerable if the line is damaged by an earthquake, mudslide, or some other natural disaster.

The plan devised by the Cachuma Operations and Maintenance Board (COMB) — responsible for delivering water to South Coast water districts, including the City of Santa Barbara and the Goleta, Montecito, and Carpinteria Valley Water Districts — includes creating a second, 48-inch pipe in addition to the existing one. “That’s a reliability project and very needed,” said Das Williams, Santa Barbara city councilmember and COMB president. “In case of a disaster, we could be in real trouble without the second barrel.” But COMB has already hit a major roadblock in getting the project off the ground. The Carpinteria Water District Board of Directors, expressing concern about the financing of the proposed work, voted 4-1 last week to tentatively withhold supporting the project, and needs unanimous approval from all member agencies in order to pass the $16-million bond issue required to fund the so-called second barrel and a host of other necessary maintenance projects...

[ Please see original article with photos and comments. ]

Labels: Lake Cachuma, Tecolote Tunnel, water projects