The bad news is that Lake Cachuma — chief water supply for 225,000 county residents — is now only 7.6 percent full. That’s an unprecedented historic low. Even worse, once the dam drops down to 6.2 percent capacity, what’s left — known to water officials as the “dead pool” — is off-limits for human consumption. Even worse still, relations between water agencies fighting over the last few drops have reached new lows, as well.
The latest flash point came to light two weeks ago when South Coast water agencies belatedly discovered that 2,000-3,000 acre-feet more water from Lake Cachuma had been released this summer than they expected. These releases are legally mandated to satisfy the downstream rights of Lompoc and other communities — Buellton, Solvang, and Santa Ynez���— located below the dam. South Coast water managers said they were led to believe this year’s release would range in size from 8,000-9,000 acre-feet. Instead, it wound up being 11,600.
The surprise of South Coast water agencies was anything but accidental. Instead, it was engineered to perfection by Bruce Wales, general manager of the Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District, who availed himself of highly arcane water-rights language dating back to 1973. This language allowed Wales to secure permits from the federal Bureau of Reclamation — which owns the dam and dictates how it operates — and receive “negative” water credits. This enabled the Santa Ynez district to “borrow” water from future rains and use it today. (The only proviso is that this water must be paid back.)