Santa Barbara County, CA Water Table Trend
Santa Barbara County, CA: what the water table is actually doing
Santa Barbara County's long-term well puts the trend at 3.3 ft per decade, rising, getting shallower over time, based on 95 measurements since 1924.
This is one representative well, not a county-wide survey, the same grain limit every page here discloses.
Santa Barbara County's source well, in detail
Depth to water at the last reading was 12.2 ft below land surface. Readings span 1924-06-01 to 2022-04-05, 95 measurements from USGS well USGS-342549119510501 (004n028w18f001s), part of the National Water Information System. The qualifying bar and the OLS fit behind this trend are documented in the methodology guide.
How Santa Barbara County compares nationally
Santa Barbara County sits at rank 88th of 1,449 ranked counties, ordered rising-to-declining, so a low number means a rising water table and a high one means fast decline. Santa Barbara County, California is home to about 444,500 people. See the fastest-moving counties guide for how Santa Barbara County stacks up against the most extreme cases nationally.
Depth and quality are separate questions
This page answers a depth question, not a quality one. A well in Santa Barbara County can be stable in depth and still worth testing for quality, or declining and still test clean, the two are measured separately, and only a direct test settles the second one.