The Cachuma Operation and Maintenance Board gave the go-ahead Tuesday for a Memorandum of Understanding clearing the way to fund the “double barrel” pipeline.
Adding a second water delivery channel to the Santa Ynez Mountains’ southern slope, the double barrel adds redundancy to the half-century old Tecolote Tunnel. That tunnel is in need of repair and the South Coast officials fear it could fail in a large seismic event.
But plans to build the double barrel faltered in the last months due to political wrangling. The Santa Ynez River Conservation District: ID No. 1 informed the Cachuma board that it would not vote for the double barrel unless it would halt all fish projects in the lower Santa Ynez River.
The district said the fisheries projects could compromise its water supply and asked that another organization carry them out instead. The district seemed steeled in its position until Santa Barbara announced it would build the double barrel, leaving ID1 out of the voting process.
ID1 countered by softening its demands and asking the Cachuma board to reconsider building the project. The board decided to make a final attempt to work with the district and draft the MOU with the district that would close down all fisheries projects until the end of this year and secure ID1’s vote on the double barrel. A draft of the project was approved by the district’s board at a special meeting on March 1. That agreement outlined the stay on fish projects and said ID1 would vote to fund the double barrel. The districts board also voted at that same meeting to support the bond and accept an indemnity agreement with COMB.
After the district finished the meeting, some of the South Coast members of COMB decided they wanted more clarification on the agreement. Chris Dahlstrom, ID1 general manager, said COMB worked with the district over the weekend to create a final draft that would go before the Cachuma board.
The concluding MOU that reached the board included the original provisions to halt fisheries projects until Dec. 31 and still required ID1 to vote yes on the project. What was added was a clarification that the district would continue to support the double barrel, even after the agreement expired at the end of 2010. Kate Rees, COMB’s general manager, said the project could take well over a year and the board needed to insure that the district would cooperate even after the agreement expired.
Rees called signing the agreement “very good news.” She said accomplishing the double barrel through COMB would be “much better all the way around” for all the organizations involved. It spares the South Coast the time and expense of transferring the project from the Cachuma board and allows the district to buy more time for reorganization.
Reorganization of the Cachuma boards has been another hot spot in the debate over fisheries projects. There are actually two Cachuma boards. The first, COMB, was traditionally charged with the construction and operation of the Lake Cachuma project facilities not including Bradbury Dam. The other organization, Cachuma Conservation and Release Board, was formed to protect South Coast water rights and eventually partnered with the district to carry out fisheries projects.
Projects from CCRB began seeping into COMB and this infuriated the district. The South Coast on the other hand, thought merging the two boards could be a viable option. So began the reorganization: A process that has spanned almost half a decade in an attempt to find an agreeable solution to simplifying the Cachuma boards. Recently, the reorganization seemed stalled and unsure of ever restarting, but a breakthrough on the double barrel project might mean a breakthrough on reorganization.
The deadline on the MOU gives both sides an incentive to return to the bargaining table and pick up where they left off. Chris Dahlstrom, the general manager of ID1 called the agreement the best way forward. And that might very well be true for the district whose original request that fisheries projects stay out of COMB is being met, if only for nine months.
The funding for the project did not go before the Cachuma board because of a new law that took effect at the beginning of the year. The new law states that bonds cannot be accepted at special meetings and must be voted on during a regularly scheduled meeting. That means the bond to fund the double barrel will go to a vote at COMB’s next board meeting. That assembly is scheduled for Mar. 22 in Santa Barbara.