Featured Story Archive

The Sherpa Fire reminds us that with another long dry summer of drought ahead, conservation remains critical.  Please help conserve water for public health and safety by reducing water use. How is the District supporting firefighting efforts? The Goleta Water District is coordinating with Unified Command to ensure awareness of District resources, and has participated in briefings with the Emergency… Read more

Thank you to Goleta Water District customers for all their water saving efforts. We are encouraged by the recent winter rains, but Lake Cachuma is still below 50%. Even with conservation the Goleta Valley remains in severe drought.  Reducing outdoor watering now conserves water for public health and safety. Since as much as half of residential water is used by outdoor irrigation, the easiest way to… Read more

The severe drought continues in the Goleta Valley, and the Stage III Water Shortage Emergency remains in effect.  The lack of rainfall over the last several years means that as we enter the summer months, fire season has already begun.  Please help conserve water for public health and safety. For a full list of current drought restrictions, including mandatory outdoor water restrictions, and assigned… Read more

With winter rains below average for the fifth year in a row, Lake Cachuma is below 15% of capacity and is anticipated to decline further over the summer. Even as green vegetation has sprung up on the hillsides, and plants are flowering, at 72% of average rainfall this year to date countywide there hasn't been enough rain for the Santa Ynez River to run sufficiently to get inflow into the lake. It is… Read more

While everyone is hopeful that El Niño will bring much needed rain, as we enter the remaining few months of the rainy season, the community remains in a severe drought. Read more

The Goleta Water District is excited to announce that customers in the unincorporated Goleta Valley (the area outside the city limits of Goleta and Santa Barbara) can now pipe greywater from their bathroom sinks, showers, and tubs onto their landscaping without having to apply for a building permit, get an inspection or pay fees. This makes them among the first in the state to be able to do so. You… Read more

The District has long been at the forefront of conservation, and we have been actively managing the current drought since it began in 2012.  The Goleta Valley’s long history of drought means Goleta Water District customers understand the value of water and the need to conserve.  Residential per capita water use is among the lowest in the state, and there is high consciousness among customers of the… Read more

As the drought worsens, many customers have significantly reduced outdoor water use. One of the easiest ways to do this is by removing or reducing the size of your lawn. On average as much as half of residential water use is outdoor irrigation, so removing turf is one of the best options to significantly reduce water use. While the District does not currently prohibit lawns, more severe restrictions… Read more

On May 12, 2015 the Goleta Water District Board of Directors declared a Stage III Water Shortage Emergency, with mandatory water use restrictions and changes to watering times. The Goleta Valley remains in drought conditions and water conservation is still critical to ensure adequate supplies for drinking, health and public safety.  The declaration is consistent with the requirements of the District’s… Read more

No End in Sight as the Goleta Valley Enters into another Summer of Drought Here in the Goleta Valley we know the importance of water conservation, but we can’t control the weather. In our fourth year of drought we have received only half of our normal rainfall.  Our community faces the worst water shortage emergency in our history— now even more severe that than the 1990s drought so many of us remember. Doing… Read more