It's raining, thank heaven! Santa Barbara County is, as of this writing, at 125 percent of average yearly rainfall (with more on the way). Lake Cachuma (in wet years more than half of the City of Santa Barbara's water supply) is 52 percent full. The city and county have moved from Severe Drought to Abnormally Dry. Knowing all of this, it's tempting to conclude the drought is over and that we can all return to "water use as usual." That would be a huge mistake!
Santa Barbara is not water independent. The city does not own all the water in Lake Cachuma. It is entitled to only 32.19 percent of the water in the reservoir. Montecito, Goleta, Carpinteria, and the Santa Ynez Valley all own and draw water from the reservoir. And, by law, water must be released from the lake yearly to support endangered steelhead trout along with some 38,000 acres of downstream farmlands. In fact, the only water that is exclusively Santa Barbara's is the water we conserve, the nonpotable water we recycle, and the desalinated water from the Charles E. Meyer plant. The rest of our supply is dependent on climate change and drought, and two increasingly tenuous sources of imported water (the Sierra snowpack and the Colorado River).
According to climate scientists, drought is the "new normal" for the Southwest, including California. We just lived through the five hottest years on record, with Santa Barbara remaining in severe drought until the recent rains. Despite the rain we are experiencing, drought will determine whether and/or how much imported water southern California cities will actually receive from the State Water Project (Sierra snowpack), which in turn is dependent on water availability from the Colorado River Compact.