California awards $1 million climate resilience grant to Cuyama Valley community
NEW CUYAMA, Calif. – The County of Santa Barbara, two community-based non-profits, Blue Sky Center and Quail Springs, and the Community Environmental Council have been awarded a $1 million grant to bolster climate resilience in the Cuyama Valley.
The Transformative Climate Communities grant from the California Strategic Growth Council will fund a variety of activities to curb the impact of climate change in the community including:
- County Community Services Department and Blue Sky Center will identify household improvements to increase energy efficiency, energy resilience, and home comfort that can be implemented while overcoming barriers unique to the rural community
- County Planning and Development will implement programs and policies previously identified in the Environmental Justice Element
- County Public Works Department will engineer pedestrian and biking paths
- Blue Sky Center will expand its community Victory Garden pilot projects and will update existing electrical infrastructure for future microgrids and determine the feasibility of a community cold storage system
- Quail Springs Permaculture will provide residents with greywater and backyard composting systems as well as offer educational and workforce opportunities to reduce water use and waste generation
- Community Environmental Council will organize and facilitate the Cuyama Community Resilience Committee to ensure an inclusive process for project management and community outcomes
“Being a remote and rural community, Cuyama Valley has already demonstrated resilience in the face of COVID, extreme weather, physical and digital isolation, and environmental degradation,” said Das Williams, First District Supervisor. “We are extremely grateful for the funding and excited about the opportunity to implement these transformative projects.”
The 'Resilient Cuyama Valley' grant proposal's priorities were decided through community outreach efforts, the Cuyama Valley Community Action Plan, Santa Barbara County's Active Transportation Plan (adopted in May 2023), the Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment (completed in 2022), and the forthcoming Climate Change Adaptation Plan and the previously mentioned Environmental Justice Element.
For more information about these grant-based projects and other County of Santa Barbara initiatives in Cuyama Valley, visit here.
The impact of climate change has been a notable topic in Cuyama Valley, especially in the last year.
The Cuyama groundwater basin is designated one of California's critically over-drafted basins.
Demands for groundwater use by the two largest carrot producers in the world led to legal scuffles over the basin which includes portions of Santa Barbara, Kern, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties.
Those two companies, Bolthouse Farms and Grimway Farms, sought legal remedies to state-required groundwater pumping reductions by suing local landowners and sparking a boycott despite a previous agreement amongst locals, businesses, and the carrot-growing corporations.
