Santa Barbara water staff present expanded annual report, outline major capital and Gibraltar work

Matt Ward, Water System Manager for the City of Santa Barbara, presented a new story‑map format of the water system annual report at the Water Commission meeting on Dec. 19, detailing operations, distribution work and a multi‑year capital program that the department says will focus on Gibraltar Reservoir, Vic Trace and large‑diameter mains.

The story map, Ward said, highlights the scale of the system — about 27,000 service connections, roughly 330–335 miles of mains, 16 pump stations, and three treatment facilities (Arcadia, Ortega and the desalination plant). “We have a T 5, D 5 water system, so most complex,” Ward said, and he added that “on a good year, Gibraltar supplies about 50% of water to the city.”

Commissioners were shown how the system ties to regional conveyance: the Mission Tunnel (about 3.7 miles long) and CADRE conveyance, and how Vic Trace functions as both a storage hub and a future construction focus. Joshua Hegmark, Water Resources Manager, said the city is also pursuing operational and regulatory steps tied to a pass‑through agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation but cautioned there is no timeline: “The pass through agreement has been executed and in order to fully recognize it, we need to have a WARN Act to be able to store Gibraltar water in Kachuma. And the bureau refuses to take up that until we complete the biological opinion,” he said.

Nut graf: Commissioners heard that the department is ramping capital work after years of planning and supply variability — a program that includes immediate water‑main replacements, Gibraltar dam and accessory work,…