Santa Barbara County to Approve Cuyama River River-Bed Mining
County sees no harm from release of 100,000 to 300,000 cubic yards of fine-grained sediment annually into the Cuyama riverbed that will displace more than 120 acre-feet of Santa Maria Valley irrigation and domestic water storage capacity each year.
More than 10 % of the volume of water needed to support Santa Barbara County’s $392 million annual strawberry production is to be lost each year that proposed in-stream mining is allowed in the upper Cuyama River watershed.
Twitchell Reservoir is filling with mud at rates much faster than it was designed to accommodate when it was constructed in the 1950’s. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent by the County and the Twitchell Management Authority to try to restore the lost irrigation water storage capacity. Yet incremental losses within the County’s control are being given away.
