In Santa Barbara County, as in most of California, fresh water supply,land use, and population are intimately tied. County leaders have worked hard to ensure adequate supplies of water through infrastructure development, advances in efficiency, and changes in patterns of water use. Today, the pressing question is how to ensure water reliability for urban, agricultural, and environmental needs under conditions of increasing variability of precipitation. Historically groundwater served as a buffer when surface water supplies were limited. This has led, in places, to aquifers becoming overdrawn.
California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act requires the region to find ways to bring its use of groundwater into balance, bringing new attention to the role of working and natural lands in recharging precious local water supplies. Often, the connection between reliable water and conservation is complex and unfolds over many years. Take the case of drought and ranch land conversion: In long droughts like the one Santa Barbara
has just experienced, rangelands, which are reliant on precipitation for grasses as animal feed, cannot support as many cattle; ranchers are often forced to sell livestock or convert land to other crops in order to make ends meet. The loss of ranch lands is a significant trend in the County, and troublesome for both the ranching community and for conservation minded residents concerned about the effect of fragmenting these large rangelands. Water is life for people and all the plants and animals who call the County home; understanding the region’s water resources is critical to a positive future for Santa Barbara County.
Check out the Water Resources portal on the Blueprint’s Atlas here.