 The city repaired and recommissioned the plant in 2015 after the cost of federal licensing decreased, but drought prevented the plant from actually running until early 2017.In the early 1900s the City of Santa Barbara had exhausted its local water supplies, and looked to the drainage basin of the nearby Santa Ynez River, which is much larger than any of the city's local streams.In 1904 construction began on the Mission Tunnel which was bored under Mission Canyon in the Santa Ynez Mountains, to tap surface and ground water in the Santa Ynez basin.