So while state regulators have lifted the statewide mandatory 25 percent cut in water usage, Santa Barbara officials are cracking down. Beginning Jan. 1, the city will ban all residential lawn watering.

“Things just continue to get worse,” said Joshua Haggmark, water resources manager for the city of Santa Barbara. “This has been so much worse than anything we’ve experienced in the past.”

The lawn-watering ban is expected to help the city bring its water conservation rate up to 40 percent, compared to 2012. But Mr. Haggmark is bracing for more. He recently met with the officials from the state’s Office of Emergency Services to see what the state can do to help.

“This has been the driest five years on records and this month we will be out of any water that was captured in the lake,” he said.

The city can get about 30 percent of the water it needs by importing water from other parts of the state, but that is often unpredictable because of the byzantine process that water is allocated throughout the region.