Santa Barbara outlines water-conservation gains and AMI rollout to committee

Dakota Corey, water supply and services manager in the City of Santa Barbara's Public Works Department, told the Sustainability Committee on April 3 that the city's long-term conservation efforts have kept water production near 1950s levels despite a population increase.

Corey described the city's automated metering infrastructure (AMI) program, deployed March 11 of the prior year, and the Water Smart customer portal that allows account holders to view near-real-time hourly water use and receive leak notifications. "Since we went live last year on March 11, 51% of all of our customers have registered for Water Smart," Corey said, noting the city’s original goal at launch had been 10 percent.

Corey explained the AMI system transmits meter reads via MTUs to data collectors and provides usage patterns that can detect continuous flows consistent with leaks. The portal's machine-learning components compare observed patterns to a customer’s typical usage and can trigger alerts. "Instead of having that like 2 month lag, now they're getting it 24 hours, a notification in their pocket," Corey said.

Staff described complementary programs: landscape rebate and mulch-delivery rebates (1,368 landscape rebates; 2,529 mulch rebates issued over the past decade), commercial surveys and incentives, a bilingual green-gardener certification, school-age education that reached 23,350 youth, and a leak-relief billing programthat has seen both fewer applications and lower requested credits since Water Smart launched. Corey said the city has issued 23,643 leak alerts and recorded 15,758 Water Smart portal registrations.

Why it matters: the combination of policy (landscape standards), technology (AMI and Water Smart), incentives and education aims to reduce demand and improve resilience amid drought cycles while making leak detection timelier for customers.

Speakers: Dakota Corey (Water Supply and Services Manager, Public Works).