Montecito Association

“I’ve been waiting twelve years to tell you that the Miramar is completed,” said Caruso Senior Vice President of Corporate Relations Rick Lemmo to a packed audience at the Montecito Association board meeting earlier this week. Lemmo shared some details about the Resort, which had its soft opening on Monday, February 11. “Thank you for working with us over the years. It’s come a long way and we’re grateful to be official members of the community,” he said. 

Montecito Water District General Manager Nick Turner gave a presentation about several items the District is currently working on. The District serves 11,400 people through 4,612 service connections, with an annual revenue of $19 million. The MWD infrastructure was heavily damaged in the 1/9 debris flow, including 9 transmission pipeline breaks, 15 distribution pipeline breaks, 25 sheared-off fire hydrants, and over 290 damaged service connections. “Permanent or temporary repairs were completed and the water system was restored in under three weeks,” Turner said. “It was really incredible.” The District continues to work on four highline crossings, the bridge at Parra Grande, and lost structures at Jameson Lake. The total cost of the damage was $8.1M; the District was able to recoup $5.2M from FEMA and $2.3M from insurance. 

Diversification has long been a goal of the District, which includes achieving 85% local and “drought proof” water supplies by 2025. “We want to rely less on unreliable water supplies,” said Turner, explaining that our largest water sources of Lake Cachuma and Jameson Lake are rainfall dependent and unreliable. Initiatives include groundwater banking, desalination, and recycled water. 

A desalination agreement with the City of Santa Barbara is expected to be completed by June 2019. The governing principles of the agreement include the following: The City would own and operate the plant and conveyance pipe; the City will deliver and MWD will pay for an annual supply of water irrespective of the hydrological conditions; the District’s cost of water includes reimbursement for a portion of the expenses that the City has spent on maintaining the plant since 1995; the City has the right to supply the District with water from any of the City’s potable water supplies, but agrees to maintain the plant’s ability to produce water; the agreement would be for 50 years, and allow 1,430 acre-feet of water per year, ranging in price from $2,637 and $3,000. Deliveries of the water could start as early as January 2021.  

The District also continues to work on a recycled water plan; the feasibility study was completed in November 2018 and the District is currently in Phase 1 for the majority of the year. Phase 1 includes multiple technical studies; Phase 2 will include predesign, CEQA studies, and funding/financing studies. Phase 3 will include final design and funding, and Phase 4 will be construction of recycled water facilities. “This water won’t be delivered to single family homes, it will be used for large irrigation uses such as the cemetery and golf courses,” Turner said. “Additional technical studies are needed to refine the project.” The estimated unit cost for recycled water is $3,300-$3,700 per acre-foot. 

The District will also be conducting a rate study this year, with a target completion expected by the 2nd quarter of this year. For more information, visit www.montecitowater.com. 

During Community Reports, Montecito Fire Chief of Operations Kevin Taylor reminded the community that there will be a stakeholder meeting next week to discuss the amendments to the District’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), following lessons learned from the Thomas Fire in 2017 as well as findings from the recently released “A Defensible Community: A Retrospective Study of Montecito Fire Protection District’s Wildland Fire Program During the 2017 Thomas Fire” report. The amendment provides guidance as to how the District may best move forward given the new environmental conditions that the Thomas Fire and ensuing debris flow created. The District is seeking community input, and will hold a meeting at Montecito Fire Station 1, 595 San Ysidro Road on Wednesday, February 20, at 5:30 pm to discuss the amendment. The meeting will offer a positive, solution-oriented environment in which to address the future wildfire threat to our community. All stakeholders including property owners, residents, local agencies, organizations, associations, business owners, community leaders, and interested public members are encouraged to attend.

Both school superintendents reported that improvements will be made to both campuses in the coming months: roof renovations and ADA updates during the summer at Montecito Union School, and heating and lighting system upgrades during spring break at Cold Spring School. 

Diane Gabriel with Montecito Sanitary District reported that the recent rainstorms caused an increase in flow into the treatment plant, which means there are private property connections that are sending water to the District’s systems. Montecito Sanitary District offers free inspections on your property to ensure your drainage is not connected improperly. For more information, visit www.montsan.org. Next week we’ll have more info on the District’s local lift stations. 

The next Montecito Association board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 12.