By Nick Welsh
Santa Barbara Independent
Just two days after Santa Barbara experienced the collective cognitive dissonance inflicted by thunder, lighting, and an of inch of rain in the middle of July, the Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously to pull the $55 million trigger to revamp and reactivate its long mothballed desalination plant.
Most councilmembers acknowledged the strong possibility that the El Niño storm systems predicted for this winter could likely bring heaving rains. But given that the South Coast’s single most important source of water — Cachuma Lake — is so low that further deliveries are expected to cease this year, not one councilmember was willing to take that risk.
With or without rain, declared Mayor Helene Schneider, desalinated water will have to become part of the city’s supply portfolio. “This drought will end one day,” she said. “But there will be another drought another day.” Councilmember Gregg Hart estimated that the cost of desalinated water would translate to a $10- to $20-a-month increase in the average customer’s water bill. “That’s not a lot of money in the context of the risk involved,” he said.
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