The wonky issue of groundwater overdraft got juicier this week after media reports of Jeff Bridges’s wife, Susan Geston, raised pointed questions about the amount of water Oprah Winfrey was using on her three adjoining Montecito properties.
Geston told the Hollywood Reporter she would “love to find out what’s going on up there,” referring to Winfrey’s $29 million acreage she bought last year. The Today Show picked up the story and reported that Winfrey’s reps claimed the billionaire uses less water than the previous owner and installed drought-resistant turf. For now, the celebrity dispute appears to be more hype than substance.
But it was funny timing. County Supervisor Das Williams planned to lead a review this week on all water well permits issued in Santa Barbara County, but the matter was postponed until July. Nevertheless, Williams appeared on the Today Show to spread awareness about Montecito’s supply of groundwater. “… This issue is much bigger to me than any one person or property,” he later wrote in a Facebook post with the video clip, adding that unmetered “private wells is a serious concern for every resident of the county, especially in areas like Montecito where private wells share the same aquifer that the public relies on.”