A long-awaited Montecito Water District rate study, planned for release this May, will not be finished until later this year, officials said this week.
The study can’t proceed until the district finishes negotiating the terms of an agreement for buying into Santa Barbara’s desalination plant, said Nick Turner, district general manager. Still to be determined, he said, is the amount and cost of a potential city supply for Montecito: It could be enough water to meet up to 35 percent of Montecito’s demand, with a price tag of up to $4 million, every year for the next 50 years.
Negotiations with the city began in October 2016.