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Santa Rosa water programs credited with large per‑capita declines, officials say
Summary
Senior planner Claire Nordley told the Water Conservation Subcommittee that Santa Rosa's long-running water use efficiency programs have driven steep declines in per‑person use and produced thousands of acre‑feet of savings, while remaining cost‑effective compared with purchased supply.
At a meeting of the Water Conservation Subcommittee, Claire Nordley, senior water resources planner for Santa Rosa Water, presented an overview of the city’s water use efficiency portfolio and said the programs contribute materially to the city’s supply picture.
Nordley told the panel that Santa Rosa’s portfolio includes purchased water from Sonoma Water, local groundwater and a small amount of recycled water, and that “water use efficiency [is] part of our water supply portfolio” because it achieves notable savings. She said the city’s programs are estimated to save more than 4,000 acre‑feet per year.
The overview put several scale figures in front of committee members: total demand for the city is roughly 6,000,000,000 gallons per year across about 54,000 accounts; single‑family residential use accounts for about 50% of demand and multifamily about 17%. Nordley said the city’s gross gallons per capita per day (GPCD) has fallen substantially, noting that GPCD is down about 45% since 1990 while population has increased roughly 57%.
Nordley listed long‑running investments and outcomes behind those trends: about $35 million invested in conservation programs and staff over the past decades; roughly 58,000 toilets replaced through various programs; approximately 4,300,000 square feet of turf converted to low‑water landscapes; and a suite of rebates and direct‑install efforts. She also noted that the city’s rebate programs typically cost less than the city’s per‑acre‑foot purchase price from Sonoma Water, which she said is about $1,200 per acre‑foot.
Nordley described operational tools that support conservation: the city’s advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and a Water Smart portal that allows customers to view hourly, weekly and monthly use and set leak alerts; a rise in water‑waste reports after AMI deployment (peaking at more than 700 reports in 2021); workshops and community outreach events; and rainwater harvesting and other outdoor rebate programs. She said the rainwater rebate program has supported about 60 sites and more than 245,000 gallons of storage since it began in 2009.
On state policy, Nordley summarized recent rulemaking implementing California’s “Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life” legislation: the state now sets customized water‑use objectives made up of indoor and outdoor residential targets, commercial/industrial targets and distribution loss targets. Nordley said Santa Rosa “is under our water use objective by nearly 40%” and that the city’s objective allows for higher allotments where appropriate; she said Santa Rosa’s objective is “up to 22,000 acre‑feet” and the city is well below that level.
Committee members asked about funding and outreach continuity; Nordley and staff described ongoing marketing, targeted outreach, the use of bill inserts and postcards, and work to expand participation beyond early adopters. Nordley closed by offering to answer questions and noting the city’s multi‑pronged approach to sustaining savings.
The presentation and figures came from Claire Nordley’s slide presentation to the subcommittee.
