The Carpinteria Valley Water District Operations staff will be performing an emergency main shutdown that will affect the 1100 & 1200 blocks of Mark Avenue as well as portions of the 6400. 6700, 6800 blocks of Casitas Pass Road. We anticipate water will be restored by 9 p.m. The CVWD crew will make every effort to minimize the time the water is off. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.
The series of atmospheric river storms that brought record-breaking amounts of rain and snow in January had many Californians asking if our existing water infrastructure is able to capture and store flows from these extreme weather events. With climate change resulting in stronger storms carrying more water and the possibility of major flooding, the answer is more complicated than one might think.
“As the world gets warmer as a result of climate change, we see a change in the distribution of rain and snow,” said State Climatologist Michael Anderson. “This results in more runoff during the storm event itself, potentially creating a flood hazard and leaving less to run off from the snowpack in the spring for storage in our reservoirs.”
Whether it falls as rain or snow, the majority of that water flows through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – the center of California’s water distribution system – on its way to the San Francisco Bay. From state and federal pumping facilities in the south Delta, water is lifted into the aqueducts that carry it to the Bay Area, Central Coast, Central Valley and Southern California, to be delivered to 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland.
Regulations govern how much water may be diverted to the aqueducts in order to protect water quality and fisheries. These regulations are based in part on the physical location of the facilities.
The
Delta Conveyance Project is a proposed infrastructure modernization project outlined in Governor Newsom’s strategy to adapt California’s water supply for a
hotter and drier future. The project is an essential climate adaptation strategy that will help adapt to climate change and aid in ensuring the State Water Project can capture, move and store water during extreme weather events like the nine atmospheric rivers experienced in January.
For example, if the Delta Conveyance Project had been operational during the high rain events of January this year, the modernized conveyance system could have moved
228,000 acre-feet of water into San Luis Reservoir while still meeting fishery and water quality protections and regulations. That’s enough water to supply about 2.3 million people for an entire year and is equivalent to approximately 40 percent of the total State Water Project exports in water year 2022.
As encouraging as the recent rainfall and snowpack statistics are, state water managers note that drought conditions persist and it will take years to replenish groundwater basins. While the winter season has been positive, the most important measurement of the year will be April 1 when the snowpack is typically at its highest.
“These storms made clear the importance of our efforts to modernize our existing water infrastructure for an era of intensified drought and flood,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “What we need to be positioned to do in California is move water when it’s available because moving and storing that water is going to help California weather longer and deeper droughts.”
Climate Change Fact Sheet
DCP Overview March Update
SWP Santa Barbara Fact Sheet
On Friday, March 24, 2023, Governor Newsom signed
Executive Order N-5-23 rolling back some drought emergency restrictions but maintaining others. The recent rain storms have helped ease drought conditions for a majority of the state but there are still some regions and communities experiencing water supply shortages, especially those that rely heavily on groundwater supplies which have been severely depleted during the drought. The state also announced an anticipated increase in state water allocations from 35% to 75% allocation.
Listed below are the restrictions that have ended and those that remain with the implementation of
EO N-5-23.
• Ends the voluntary 15% water conservation target, while continuing to encourage that Californians make conservation a way of life;
• Ends the requirement that local water agencies implement level 2 of their drought contingency plans;
• Maintains the ban on wasteful water uses, such as watering ornamental grass on commercial properties;
• Preserves all current emergency orders focused on groundwater supply, where the effects of the multi-year drought continue to be devastating;
• Maintains orders focused on specific watersheds that have not benefited as much from recent rains, including the Klamath River and Colorado River basins, which both remain in drought;
• Retains a state of emergency for all 58 counties to allow for drought response and recovery efforts to continue.
The District anticipates moving from Stage 3 to Stage 1 Drought Condition by the end of April 2023.The District currently has two open positions, Field Technician-Customer Service and Accounting Technician II. Click
here to be routed to the District’s Employment web page for a description of the open position and information on how to apply.
The District will be closed on Monday, January 16, 2023 in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr Holiday. For water emergencies, call 805-684-2816. The District staff has on-call personnel that will respond to water emergencies.
The District will be closed on the following dates: December 26, 2022, December 30, 2022 and January 2, 2023. For water emergencies, call 805-684-2816. The District staff has on-call personnel that will respond to water emergencies.
The District currently has an open position for an Accounting Technician II. Click
here to be routed to the District's Employment web page for a description of the open position and information on how to apply.
The Carpinteria Valley Water District (CVWD) and Carpinteria Sanitary District (CSD) have partnered to develop an advanced water purification facility which will create a drought-resilient water supply for our service area. It is evident that the District’s existing water supply portfolio is extremely vulnerable during periods of prolonged drought. Lake Cachuma is below 32% of its capacity at the time of this writing and California water agencies received just 5% of our water allocations this year from the State Water Project (SWP). Equally low or no allocations are expected in the coming years from the SWP. Our existing water supplies do not provide enough water to meet our customer’s water demand in coming years and to date we have not met our District-wide conservation goals. The Carpinteria Valley Water District moved from a Stage 2 Drought Emergency to a Stage 3 Drought Emergency as of the November 9, 2022 Board Meeting, reducing the number of landscape watering days from 3 days per week to 2 days per week to help conserve additional water. Irrigating non-functional turf, turf that is solely ornamental and not regularly used for recreation, is still prohibited throughout California for commercial, industrial, and institutional (CII) water customers. We have had minimal precipitation and we must manage our water supplies under the assumption that this is the “new normal” until our local and State-wide weather conditions prove otherwise. The Carpinteria Advanced Purification Project (CAPP) will create a source of water that is not dependent on rain and will be a vital water supply when our surface water and imported water supplies become limited.
CAPP replenishes the groundwater basin with water that can be used for drinking. This process is known as indirect potable reuse or IPR. The project consists of taking water that has already been treated at the CSD Wastewater Treatment Plant, purifying it in a new advanced water purification facility, and transporting it through its own water system to be stored in the groundwater basin. An overview of this process is provided in Figure 1. This facility would create 1,000 acre-feet per year for the District, which makes up 25% of the annual water demand for our customers. Currently this water resource is treated and then released into the Pacific Ocean. We would be capturing this local water source and maximizing its use.
In addition to diversifying our water supply portfolio, CAPP will provide overall benefits to the Carpinteria Groundwater Basin (CGB) in helping to minimize the risk of seawater intrusion. CAPP will be instrumental in helping us to reach groundwater sustainability under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Indirect potable reuse is safe, sustainable, and environmentally friendly.
Initially, CAPP was estimated to cost around $30 million dollars; however, inflation has impacted projected construction costs. The project is now estimated to cost around $40 million dollars at this time. Although this is very unfortunate, it is important to keep up the momentum and push the project forward to secure a new water supply for our community, especially with no end in sight for our current drought. Without rain, our current sources of water are not being replenished and this additional source of water is being released into the ocean every day. We have the methods, technology, plans, and site selected to make this project happen. Over the course of the next three years we plan to finalize CAPP’s design, secure the required permits, pursue funding opportunities and construct the project.
So far, the District has acquired a grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in the amount of $9.5 million through their Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse program that provides funding for the planning, design, and construction of water recycling and reuse projects. Through the Clean Water State’s Revolving Fund (SRF) loan program, we were allocated an additional $10 million in grants for Recycled Water Projects. We are also hoping to receive $1.1 million through an Integrated Regional Water Management Planning (IRWMP) grant that was applied for this year. In October a grant became available to assist with meeting SGMA requirements. Since CAPP serves not only to create a new water supply but will also help our groundwater basin, the District plans to ask for around $15 million through SGMA funding. It is the goal of the District to keep pursuing grant opportunities in order to minimize the financial impact of constructing CAPP to its customers.
We have completed the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements for CAPP and the preliminary design and are moving into the final design and permitting phase. We plan to finalize this process within the next 18 months. Once construction begins, it is estimated to take another 18 months to build the facility, construct the conveyance pipeline, and drill the injection well. If all goes according to plan, the facility could be ready by January of 2026.
For more information on CAPP visit cvwd.net/capp/ and to stay up to date on the Carpinteria Groundwater Sustainability Agency and Groundwater Sustainability Plan development visit carpgsa.org. Both websites allow for you to sign up for e-mail updates to monitor project progress. We hope that you will continue to use water wisely. The District continues to offer rebates for residential and commercial customers for water conservation fixtures and appliances as well as rebates on WaterWise Landscape upgrades. If you are looking for a winter project, you can get some financial assistance with transforming your lawn and replacing it with native and low water use plants. E-mail conservation@cvwd.net for additional information. For District updates, please visit our website cvwd.net, follow us on twitter @CarpWater, or Carpinteria Valley Water District on Facebook and Nextdoor.
CVWD is projecting a potential 30% water supply shortage if drought continues! As a result, CVWD Board of Directors approved
Ordinance 22-1 declaring Stage 3 drought condition and new watering restrictions on November 9, 2022. For a summary of the Stage 3 water regulations/restrictions, click
here.
The District currently has an open position for a Water Utility Worker 1
or Water Utility Helper and Accountant. Click
here to be routed to the District's Employment web page for a description of the open position and information on how to apply.
