Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Water topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
City adopts 2025 Urban Water Management Plan and shortage plan; council presses on conservation and multifamily demand
Summary
Manhattan Beach adopted its 2025 Urban Water Management Plan and associated Water Shortage Contingency Plan after staff described diversified supplies (imported, groundwater, recycled), scenario-based demand projections and drought-stage actions; council asked for more analysis on multifamily demand, Colorado River risk and conservation measures.
The Manhattan Beach City Council unanimously adopted the city's 2025 Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP) and its Water Shortage Contingency Plan, documents staff said are required by California law and designed to guide water supply reliability and drought response over a 25-year planning horizon.
Michael Steele of Water Systems Consulting, who helped prepare the draft, told the council that the UWMP uses a scenario-based approach to project future demands and evaluates supplies under normal, single dry year and multi-year drought conditions. "Water suppliers are required by California water code to update their urban water management plan every 5 years," Steele said, describing the legal requirement and the plan's function as a coordination tool with neighboring agencies.
The plan projects a modest demand increase through about 2040 followed by leveling, and shows an increasing role for locally pumped groundwater because of prior investments in groundwater infrastructure. Staff said the Metropolitan Water District also projects sufficient imported supplies under its current assumptions, but council members pushed for more detail about Colorado River risks and the share of supplies that ultimately depends on that source.
Council members focused questions on three practical areas: (1) multifamily-unit growth and whether required conservation standards will offset additional demand; (2) the possibility that federal or interstate decisions could further constrain Colorado River allocations; and (3) the city's efforts to reduce indoor water use. Utilities staff described ongoing programs — turf-replacement rebates, rain-barrel and device-rebate programs, and an advanced metering pilot that uses sensors on meters to help distinguish indoor from outdoor use — and said staff will expand messaging and follow up with more granular estimates connecting projected multifamily units to demand.
Staff also confirmed the city remains under stage-two shortage restrictions put in place during prior state drought guidance; those rules limit outdoor irrigation to two days per week, among other constraints. Council adopted the resolution packages (26-0064 and 26-0065) approving the UWMP and shortage plan.
Council directed staff to return with parcel-level estimates of the incremental water demand from planned multifamily housing and to provide additional information on the city's imported-water mix and Colorado River exposure.
