Water Department Marks 10th Anniversary of Landmark Water Supply Plan
Published on April 02, 2026
A decade later, community-led effort leads to tangible results.
The Santa Cruz Water Department (SCWD) announced today it is commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Water Supply Advisory Committee’s (WSAC) foundational recommendations, marking a decade of proactive work to secure the City’s water supply future. As the region faces increasingly unpredictable weather extremes that are driven by climate change, SCWD will provide community engagement activities over the next several months to review the progress made and increase public awareness about the work still to come.
“A decade ago, our community came together to build a roadmap for water supply reliability,” Santa Cruz Water Director Heidi Luckenbach said. “Today, as climate change brings more frequent droughts and intense storms, those recommendations remain the backbone of our efforts to ensure Santa Cruz has a resilient supply.”
In 2014, following a multi-year drought that necessitated a rationing program that earned national media attention, the City Council appointed the community-led WSAC to chart a path toward long-term water security through a transparent, public process. After an intensive 18-month public process, the committee recommended a diverse portfolio of supplemental supply actions, including maximization of conservation; injection of excess winter rainfall into local aquifers for future use during periods of drought; exploration of regional water transfers; and study of purified recycled water and seawater desalination.
Throughout the spring, SCWD will share historical context and updates on these critical projects through various community channels and engagement opportunities, including the launch of a new multimedia resource on the department’s webpage and a new board game that empowers players with water supply decision-making. Residents are encouraged to participate in the conversation about how the City is evolving to meet the challenges of a new climate reality.
Progress is Being Made
SCWD is making strong progress in closing the water supply gap, which could be as much as 50% of the estimated need for water during a severe drought. Over the last 10 years, SCWD has been studying, testing and implementing the WSAC’s recommendations for supplemental water supply sources, including injecting excess winter water into local aquifers and pursuing regional water transfers. These efforts are also underpinned by SCWD’s continuing commitment to support and encourage conservation by customers.
Santa Cruz residents have successfully embraced a culture of conservation, using less water today than in the 1970s, even though the city’s population has approximately doubled since then. However, due to the impacts of climate change and the resulting weather whiplash, conservation alone is no longer enough to successfully bridge the gap in water supply that is primarily caused by weather whiplash.
Based on current modeling and field testing, the combination of conservation and successful implementation of water transfers and water storage in aquifers is estimated to significantly close our supply gap. However, the unpredictability of our changing climate requires that SCWD closely monitor the outcomes of these strategies and be prepared to act swiftly to pursue other supplemental water supply strategies if necessary.
"Climate change, not population growth, is the driver of our water supply needs, creating a water supply gap we need to fill," Luckenbach said. “The core issue in the face of climate change is that, without new supplemental water supply sources, the next major drought will likely trigger significant water rationing—an outcome that could seriously disrupt our local economy and lead to job losses that would harm our community. We’ve planned for population growth. And nearly all new development consists of high‑density housing that relies on modern, high‑efficiency plumbing fixtures. High-density housing also avoids the water‑intensive landscaping that accounts for the majority of residential water use.”
Background
Unlike many California communities, Santa Cruz is 100% dependent on local rainfall, with no pipelines or canals connecting to outside water sources. The system, primarily developed in the 1960s, stores only one year’s worth of supply at Loch Lomond Reservoir, making the area exceptionally vulnerable to multi-year droughts and "too much, too fast" storm events that can leave water too muddy to use as drinking water – a climate change dynamic known as “weather whiplash.”
SCWD has also expanded its focus on a healthy watershed and protecting local fish populations. To protect the habitats of federally threatened steelhead, as well as state and federally endangered coho, the department has developed a new conservation plan in partnership with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The plan calls for more water to be available to support fish habitats, while also updating outdated water use regulations to allow storage of water in local aquifers and regional water transfers, as recommended by the Water Supply Advisory Committee.
About the Santa Cruz Water Department
The Santa Cruz Water Department serves water to approximately 98,000 customers, processes 7 million gallons of water per day on average, manages 4,000 acres of watershed lands, oversees 300 miles of distribution lines, runs a state-certified water quality laboratory, and provides summertime recreation activities at the Loch Lomond Reservoir and Recreation Area. The department receives 100% of its water supply from within Santa Cruz County, with no pipelines or canals that connect to other areas of California. The San Lorenzo River serves as the primary water source, as well as Loch Lomond Reservoir, North Coast sources and groundwater wells.