REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Public Hearing: Action to approve (1) the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan and (2) the 2025 Water Shortage Contingency Plan
Report
BACKGROUND
State law requires that any urban water supplier that provides water for municipal purposes to more than 3,000 customers or serves more than 3,000 acre-feet annually, adopt an Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP) every five years, demonstrating water supply reliability in normal, single dry, and multiple dry years.
In November 2009, the California State legislature passed the Water Conservation Act of 2009 (also known as SB X7-7). SB X7-7 required the State of California to achieve a 20% reduction in urban per capita water use by the end of 2020. As part of this legislation, the City of Santa Clara Water & Sewer Utilities Department was required to set water use targets to be met by 2020, which were initially developed in the 2010 UWMP. The City has met the conservation compliance targets.
Additionally, in response to the severe drought of 2012-2016, new legislation in 2018 mandated a Water Shortage Contingency Plan (WSCP), requiring water suppliers to prepare and adopt a WSCP as part of their 2020 UWMP. This WSCP has been revised and updated to comply with California Water Code Section 10632.
The City last updated its UWMP and WSCP in 2021 (i.e., 2020 UWMP). The 2020 UWMP provided the City with a reliable water management action plan that could be referred to with confidence and continuously as water supply conditions changed and new developments were proposed within the City. The 2020 UWMP assisted the City with assessing available supply to meet future water demands.
DISCUSSION
The 2025 UWMP projects that the City will meet projected water demands through 2050, with no anticipated supply shortfalls. The 2025 UWMP assessed the City's ability to meet projected water demands under varying supply scenarios, including single- and multiple-dry-year scenarios, loss of San Francisco Public U...
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