On Aug. 18 at 8 a.m., the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation started releasing water into the Santa Ynez River from Lake Cachuma’s Bradbury Dam. But before you get all bent out of shape about fish getting water to which humans are entitled, you should know the releases aren’t for fish.
The downstream water rights releases are being made at the request of the Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District in order to recharge the groundwater basins along the Santa Ynez River below the dam.
Bruce Wales, general manager of the water district, said the releases are made whenever they’re requested.
“We have the right to call for that water at any time; we don’t need [anybody’s] approval,” Wales said. “We had hoped that we could skip this summer and get to next summer.”
River water recharges the groundwater basins next to the river, but because of the dam, the Santa Ynez River hasn’t had water in it consistently for many years.
“There’s seldom, if any, water in the river unless it’s winter and the reservoir spills,” Wales said.
And this year, those groundwater levels are especially low because the rain hasn’t come to recharge them, either. Wales said those basins are especially shallow within 10 miles downstream of the reservoir.
“It doesn’t take very long for those to empty,” he said.
Adding to Santa Ynez’s water supply woes is the fact that ID No.1, a district overseen by Wales, is subject to new state guidelines governing how much chromium 6 can be present in drinking water. The new regulations have cut ID No. 1’s available water in half—at least, until the agency can come up with a solution.
Up to 4,500 acre feet of water is expected to be released from the dam at around 150 cubic feet per second, which equals about 300 acre feet a day, and it should provide recharge water as far downstream as Solvang. The release is expected to continue into the fall.
A press release from the water district and the Santa Barbara County Public Works Department said the release is consistent with recent emergency state water rights orders and agreements among users who store water in Lake Cachuma. The release won’t impact water deliveries to the South Coast.
This article appears in Aug 21-28, 2014.