Santa Barbara Council OKs final design, environmental work for Vic Trace reservoir replacement

The Santa Barbara City Council voted to award final design and environmental services contracts for the Vic Trace Reservoir replacement project, moving the project forward from preliminary design into the CEQA review and detailed design phases.

The Vic Trace facility, built in 1956, holds about 10 million gallons and sits at the core of the city’s water distribution system. "This particular reservoir holds 10,000,000 gallons and to put that in perspective this community uses on average about 10,000,000 gallons a day," Joshua Hagmark, acting public works director and water system manager, told the council. He said the site supplies roughly 70% of the community’s water.

City staff and the project team described a plan to demolish the existing reservoir and replace it with two buried circular tanks of 5,000,000 gallons each, relocate and update a pump station, widen the driveway for construction access, add terraces for operations, improve landscape and drainage, strengthen…