Stormwater Capture
Goleta Water District customers excel at making every drop count. The drought has reminded the community how fragile Lake Cachuma and the State Water Project are and how long term sustainability requires vigilance to protect and develop local water sources. Throughout California there has been an increasing awareness of the role stormwater management and capture can play in providing local communities with additional water. More recent approaches to stormwater management seek to replicate natural hydrology by managing storm water and dry weather runoff onsite or within the watershed where rainfall occurs. These approaches have the added benefit of improving water quality by reducing runoff and the harmful pollutants it contains.
Recognizing the potential of stormwater to provide for new additional water supplies, and recharge the Goleta Groundwater Basin, the District is currently developing a Stormwater Resources Plan (SRP). The plan will explore how much water potential stormwater capture projects could provide, identify possible projects such as capture, retention and spreading basins, and analyze each hydrologic region to determine where the best locations for projects exist. Other benefits of stormwater capture, including open space preservation, and the potential to improve water quality, will also be examined.
The District is mapping local hydrologic features, and developing a methodology to determine how much runoff could be captured at various locations that can lead to concept projects that make sense. Upon completion the District will be well positioned to take advantage of emerging state and federal funding programs to help progressive communities create sustainable sources for local drinking water.
Click here to download the Stormwater Capture: Making Every Drop Count PDF.