To: Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council
From: Joy Eldredge, Utilities Director
Prepared By: Patrick Costello, Water Resources Analyst
TITLE:
Title
Annual Water Supply and Demand Assessment
LABEL
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommendation
Receive the 2025-26 Water Supply and Demand Assessment Report
Body
DISCUSSION:
In 2018, the California legislature enacted into law new requirements for urban water suppliers to increase drought resilience and to improve communication of water shortage response actions. Each urban water supplier is required to prepare an Annual Water Supply and Demand Assessment and submit its corresponding annual report to the Department of Water Resources (DWR) on or before July 1. The assessment report is required to be developed based on an assumption that the upcoming year is going to be dry.
Rain and snowpack this past winter continued the dramatic turnaround from the 2020-2022 dry years. Local reservoirs filled and spilled for the third straight year. As of June, the City’s primary local supply, Lake Hennessey, remains above 90% capacity. While Milliken Reservoir is also nearly full, it will remain unused for 2025-26 as the City awaits FEMA approval to replace and harden the raw water pipeline damaged in the 2017 Atlas Fire. Also for the third year in a row, the primary reservoir in the State Water Project, Lake Oroville, is at full capacity. The final 2025 State Water Project North of Delta allocation is a healthy 70% and significant carryover water from previous years remains available.
Given the normal supplies, water has been made available to all Interruptible Surplus Agricultural Water accounts this year. The City currently has 29 of these interruptible customers who are projected to use up to 200 acre-feet of water in 2025.
Per the requirements of the Annual Water Supply and Demand Assessment, staff has completed the report for the upcoming year 2025-26 (Attachment 1). Tables 1-4 describe monthly demands, water supply availability, and a water shortage assessment through June 2026. No water shortages are projected. Table 5 lists the permanent actions in place that help minimize the baseline demands in Table 2.
While the current outlook is a welcome respite from the major 2020-2023 and 2013-2016 droughts, the City understands the volatility of California’s climate and is committed to “Making Water Conservation a Way of Life” by meeting its water use targets under SB 606/AB 1668. Demand on the City water system is projected to remain well below 132 gallons per capita per day as required in its Urban Water Use Objective.
FINANCIAL IMPACTS:
Projected revenue from all water sales is accounted for in the proposed FY26 water budget.
CEQA:
The Utilities Director has determined that the Recommended Action described in this staff report is not subject to CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15060(c).
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
ATCH 1 - 2025-26 Water Supply and Demand Assessment Report
NOTIFICATION:
None