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Mountain View council approves amendment to San Francisco water agreement and new drought allocation plan
Summary
The council unanimously approved an amendment to the San Francisco Water Supply Agreement (WSA) to reset minimum purchase quantities and adopted a Tier 2 drought allocation plan allocating supplies among wholesale customers, aiming to avoid future charges for unused water and better support conservation and local supplies.
The Mountain View City Council unanimously approved amendments on June 24 to its San Francisco water supply agreement and a related Tier 2 drought allocation plan, actions city staff said will reduce future charges for unused water and better align wholesale purchase obligations with local conservation and alternative supplies.
City Water Resources Manager Elizabeth Flegel told the council the recommended package would reset minimum purchase quantities (MPQs) for agencies that have a secondary imported supply, allow agencies to ease back into MPQs after drought years and create a collective waiver when aggregate usage across the minimum-purchase agencies exceeds the total MPQs. “These changes are expected to eliminate future charges for unused water and realign the minimum purchase requirement with its original intent,” Flegel said.
The council acted after a presentation that described Mountain View’s historical purchases from the San Francisco regional water system, noting that the city had paid more than $15 million over the past 15 years for water it could not use when drought-driven conservation reduced deliveries below the contractual minimums. The amended WSA will reset MPQs at 80% of current non-drought usage, with a 10‑year review built into the agreement.
The council also adopted a new Tier 2 drought allocation plan — the mechanism that divides reduced Tier 1 deliveries among the wholesale customers — which staff said was negotiated among all 26 wholesale customers and is contingent on adoption of the WSA amendment. Flegel described the Tier 2 plan as built on four policy principles: meeting basic health and safety needs, minimizing adverse economic impacts, providing predictability and flexibility, and incentivizing water-use efficiency and development of local alternative supplies.
Councilmembers asked how Mountain View’s local supplies, conservation and a rising share of recycled water factor into the agreement. Flegel and Assistant Public Works Director Lisa Au said the amendment is intended to remove the perverse incentive that previously fined agencies for conserving, and to support local supply development. Councilmember Schawalter said the city’s declining water use despite population growth showed conservation has been effective; Flegel agreed, citing building and landscape efficiency and expanded recycled-water programs.
Public comment included Lisa Matacek, a former Bay Area Water Supply & Conservation Agency (BAWSCA/Bosca) representative, who praised staff work on the negotiation. The council’s two related resolutions — to approve the WSA amendment and to adopt the Tier 2 Drought Response Implementation Plan — passed unanimously.
Next steps: the amendments must be adopted by San Francisco and all wholesale customers before taking effect; staff said the package requires unanimous adoption by the wholesale customers and San Francisco.
