SHIRLEY KIMBERLIN Everything I list turns to SOLD! 805-886-0228 skimberlin@aol.com
This week’s listings on the back page
Brakes applied on water trucking
Summer swan song
BY LEA BOYD
Three sellers have been identified within the valley, and two have given the Water District their word that they would cease water sales.
Buried in the Santa Barbara County zoning code is language that prohibits a lucrativethough-lamentable business sprung from the drought, that of trucking Carpinteria’s precious groundwater from private wells to Montecito estates. The act has achieved quite a bit of notoriety over the past few months, with water trucks looping along the edge of town to ca r ry a n y w h e re from 3,000 to 5,000 gallons per trip out of the thirsty valley and onto the open market. “The big red trucks that you’ve been seeing, they’re hauling water up to Montecito,” CVWD General Manager Charles Hamilton told the district’s board of directors on Sept. 10. Reports of the business—which initially appeared to be legal but has been scorned as unethical—led CVWD to the office of First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal and to the county Planning and Development Department, where Director Glenn Russell informed district staff that anyone engaging in water sales from county agricultural land would be violating the zoning code. “I think this is going to be a problem that goes away,” Hamilton said. Three sellers have been identified within the valley, and two have given Hamilton their word that they would cease water sales. The going rate, Coastal View News learned from an anonymous source, is 3 to 4 cents per gallon paid to the well owner, and waterdesperate Montecito clients pay around 10 cents per gallon to water truckers. CVWD Boardmember June Van Wingerden, who owns a local flower-growing nursery, reported that purchases from the well owners amount to just $30 to $40 per truckload. Thanks to a robust groundwater supply, Carpinteria Valley is well off water-wise compared to its neighbors. Nonetheless, customers have been asked to cut back their water use by 20 percent as CVWD’s main source, Lake Cachuma, shrinks daily. Underground aquifers will serve a critical need if the drought continues into 2015. “The groundwater is a shared resource,” CVWD Board President Matt Roberts said, “and we don’t want folks using it for selfish reasons, like selling it for a profit.”
WATER TRUCKING continued on page 10
TOM ARELLANO
From sun up to sun down, Carpinteria has been roasting for the past week. Temperatures topped out at 83 degrees on Sept. 16 with 91 percent humidity in Carpinteria and hit 99 degrees at Santa Barbara Airport, according to Weather Underground. Temps are supposed to creep back to the mid-70s through what is forecast to be a sunny final weekend of summer. The autumnal equinox falls on Monday, Sept. 22, when the sun will rise at 6:46 a.m. and set at 6:55 p.m.
Avofest lifts the curtain on new taste sensations BY LEA BOYD
The California Avocado Festival is turning 28 this year, and as so many 20-somethings do when they are fast approaching 30, the three-day celebration of avocados is working hard to stay hip, edgy and fun. This year, festival organizers are focused on “cool beer, cool music and cool food all paired together,” according to Boardmember Mike Lazaro. A stroll through the 2014 festival, scheduled for Oct. 3 to 5, will reveal two palate pleasers that are cool in more ways than one—new avocado ice cream and Avocado Ale. “I’m excited to keep things current,” Lazaro said. “Each year we’re going to look at what we can introduce that’s new.”
AVOFEST continued on page 26
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Real California avocados go into every batch of Avocado Ale.