Lake Cachuma Santa Barbara Flood update – As of 10am on Friday, the Public Works Department of Santa Barbara County reported that Lake Cachuma had reached 86.4% of its capacity and was approximately 9 feet below its spill level. According to Matt Young, manager of the Santa Barbara County Water Agency, the US Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the reservoir, has plans to discharge water into the Santa Ynez River below Bradbury Dam at a rate of 2,000 cubic feet per second. This information was provided by the US Bureau of Reclamation.
The flow of the river ought to pick up to somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 cubic feet per second as a result of this. According to Young’s explanation, flooding cannot be anticipated at that height. The river flowed past Lompoc at a rate of around 20,000 cubic feet per second while the storms that occurred the previous week were in effect.
Even while neither of these weather systems is expected to be as severe as the one that struck the region the week before, the rain that falls will fall on top of soils that are already saturated, which will increase the likelihood of runoff.
Instead of letting Lake Cachuma to fill up and then spilling its contents with less control, as Young said, the goal is to release smaller amounts of water from Lake Cachuma over a longer period of time. This will take significantly more time.
He is confident that the hole will be filled with water at some point.