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Santa Rosa awards a $77,000 Water Smart sustained-reduction rebate to Santa Rosa Junior College
Summary
City staff approved a Water Smart commercial sustained-reduction rebate for Santa Rosa Junior College — a rebate of just over $77,000 tied to projected savings of about 400,000 gallons per month (~4.6 million gallons annually); Director Burke authorized the payment under delegated authority.
At a board briefing, Lisa Quaar, sustainability coordinator for water use efficiency, updated the Board of Public Utilities on the City of Santa Rosa’s Water Smart commercial sustained-reduction rebate program and reported staff approval of a rebate to Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC).
Quaar described the rebate program as an incentive for commercial, industrial, and institutional customers to save water through technological upgrades or system optimization. The rebate is structured at $400 per 1,000 gallons of average monthly water reduction. Quaar said that, compared with Sonoma Water’s current approximate wholesale purchase cost of $1,400 per acre-foot, the rebate can yield an acre-foot of savings at about $724, producing a favorable cost-benefit for ratepayers.
Quaar summarized SRJC’s project elements: SRJC has an on-site groundwater source (~6 million gallons per year) that is being integrated into campus systems; staff approved two project updates (indoor and outdoor) that include nonpotable groundwater for toilet flushing, intake for two roughly 300-ton cooling towers, new landscape irrigation over about 200,000 square feet, and installation of 64 toilets and 21 urinals across campus. Quaar said the approved rebate to SRJC is just over $77,000, attributed to projected savings approaching 400,000 gallons per month (about 4.6 million gallons annually, or roughly 14.2 acre-feet).
Director Burke confirmed that the water director used delegated authority (per the board’s 2019 action) to approve the rebate and that staff will continue to periodically update the board on major participants.
Board members thanked staff for the update and praised the College’s use of rebate and Measure H funding to leverage water-efficiency investments. No public comments were made on the item.
