Tehachapi credits conservation and recycled water for falling groundwater use, seeks modest imported supply for growth
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Summary
City of Tehachapi officials say routine maintenance, an irrigation automation project and a wastewater recycling program have cut local groundwater withdrawals by roughly 400 acre-feet over a decade; officials also say the city will need a few hundred acre-feet of imported water over several years to support projected growth.
The City of Tehachapi is highlighting the work of its water department and recent conservation gains while warning that a modest amount of imported water will be needed to support future growth.
"We solely provided water from groundwater," said Tyler Napier, public works director for the City of Tehachapi, describing the system that draws from six potable groundwater wells, chlorinates the supply and distributes it to customers. Napier said the city owns native groundwater rights and that staff monitor wells daily, perform routine sampling and inspect equipment to protect water quality.
The nut of the city's pitch to residents is conservation. "What we do every day is we monitor all the wells, and we get the reads the daily reads," said JR Agari, water division supervisor, describing the department's daily tasks and its work responding to leaks and customer work orders. Napier said most leaks are on the 1-inch service lines that connect customers' meters to larger mains and that the city typically sees one to two line breaks per week.
Staff also described system-level measures that reduced demand. The city installed about 55 automated irrigation controllers (identified in the program as IQ4) for public landscaping and tied the system to alarms and remote control. "When Kyle took over the irrigation system, we were averaging about 75 acre feet of water consumption for irrigation only. In about a year, about a year and a half, Kyle completed the project and that dropped us down to about 55 acre feet," the narrator said, citing city figures. The reduction of about 20 acre-feet for irrigation was described as roughly equivalent to the annual use of about 60 homes.
Longer-term trends cited by Napier show a roughly 400 acre-foot decrease in pumping over the past decade. Napier said the city pumped 2,333 acre-feet in 2013, reached a low of 1,754 acre-feet in 2015, and pumped 1,879 acre-feet in 2024. "That conservation has paid off, not just the numbers, but in the health of the basin itself," he said, adding that average depth to water improved from about 245 feet in 2015 to about 239 feet in 2025.
The city also recovers water at its wastewater treatment plant. "We did what we call recycled water project at the wastewater treatment plant," Napier said, describing a 2017'18-era project that added a pump station and filtration system to reuse treated effluent for process water inside the plant. Napier said the project saved about 75 to 85 acre-feet per year. He added the plant processes roughly 2 acre-feet in and 2 acre-feet out on a daily basis and that the plant's permitted discharge is land-applied to about 82 acres near the rodeo grounds, leased to a farmer growing alfalfa.
Despite these gains, Napier said the city's growth and planned developments mean local groundwater alone will not be enough. "We're not asking for much," he said. "Just a few 100 acre feet over several years, enough to support the responsible, sustainable growth our community is projected to see." He identified the intended source as the Tehachapi Cummings County Water District.
The segment ends with a preview of a separate report about a prior project that, had it been completed, might have lessened the need for imported water.
Details: the department reported six potable groundwater wells, about 600 hydrants in city limits, a staff complement described in the program as five full-time employees and five licensed water operators, and a customer response standard of 15 to 20 minutes for reported leaks.
