Are you sick of hearing about snow yet? I hope not, because I’m not sick of talking about it yet. It snowed in Santa Barbara County!
And not just on the peaks either. Highway 154 closed and Caltrans had to break out the snow plows. New Cuyama was blanketed in the white stuff. This February madness follows a January that knocked our wet socks off, causing a lot of damage to homes, roadways, and the forest.
This winter has been a little loony with tropical atmospheric rivers that caused major flooding and the Arctic blast that’s still blanketing some areas in white. But I’m here for it.
After what feels like a million years of drought and scattered thunderstorms, Cachuma Lake is so full that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released water from Bradbury Dam into the Santa Ynez River ahead of the recent storms. And it’s not the first time the federal agency has done that in recent weeks.
It’s amazing, no matter how you feel about dams and what we should do with “excess” water. About 10 years ago, Cachuma was scraping at the bottom of its barrel. In order to get water from the lake to the thirsty South County cities that rely on it, Cachuma needed to install a special pump. The water levels got so low, a bridge built in the 1930s saw the light of day for the first time in decades.
In fact, all of the dammed lakes in the county are full for the first time in a long time—but, of course, that doesn’t mean we’re out of a drought. The only damning thing is how badly we’re prepared to weather the feasts and famines that California’s predictably crazy weather patterns perpetually bring. That we haven’t learned how to fix our broken water system, and instead we continue to have the same arguments we’ve been having for years about water storage and who deserves access to that water.
I don’t think a taller Bradbury Dam would make a damn bit of difference when the state is in drought conditions. We need to put water where it can keep and make a difference.
What makes for better water storage: dams or groundwater basins?
Groundwater basins already exist and water doesn’t evaporate out of them. Plus, there’s plenty of room for more water since we’ve pumped them into overdraft. Good job, everyone!
It’s nice to have actual water flowing in our local riverbeds instead of whipping sand and cracked earth—you know that’s what riverbeds are for, right? Water. Rivers are supposed to slowly meander across the land, recharging aquifers as they go and providing water to the beasts and belles that call those habitats home.
The water that’s now flowing through our often dry riverbeds isn’t just going to get dumped in the ocean. Some of it stays behind and trickles down into local aquifers.
Without water releases, the groundwater along and beneath the Santa Ynez River doesn’t get a chance for replenishment. So you should thank your neighborhood steelhead salmon for being an endangered species, since the federal government is required to release water for them at certain times of the year.
And you should thank the clouds for delivering us what we needed, even if it is a freezing cold deluge.
The canary is following the river bed. Send directions to [email protected].
