Item 28 - Urban Water Management Plan and Water Shortage Contingency Plan

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Santa Ana 2020 Urban Water Management Plan arcadis.com 6-13 approximately 76% of the City’s water supply portfolio for FY 2019-20 – from the OC Basin to meet its demands. This section describes the OC Basin and the management measures taken by OCWD, the basin manager to optimize local supply and minimize overdraft. This section also provides information on historical groundwater production as well as a 25-year projection of the City's groundwater supply. The OCWD was formed in 1933 by a special legislative act of the California State Legislature to protect and manage the County's vast, natural, groundwater supply using the best available technology and defend its water rights to the OC Basin. This legislation is found in the State of California Statutes, Water – Uncodified Acts, Act 5683, as amended. The OC Basin is managed by OCWD under the Act, which functions as a statutorily-imposed physical solution. The OCWD Management Area includes approximately 89% of the land area of the OC Basin, and 98% of all groundwater production occurs within the area. OCWD monitors the basin by collecting groundwater elevation and quality data from wells and manages an electronic database that stores water elevation, water quality, production, recharge, and other data on over 2,000 wells and facilities within and outside OCWD boundaries (City of La Habra et al., 2017). Groundwater levels are managed within a safe basin operating range to protect the long-term sustainability of the OC Basin and to protect against land subsidence. OCWD regulates groundwater levels in the OC Basin by regulating the annual amount of pumping and setting the Basin Production Percentage (BPP) for the water year. As defined in the District Act, the BPP is the ratio of water produced from groundwater supplies within the district to all water produced within the district from both supplemental sources and groundwater within the district (OCWD, 2020). On a per agency basis including the City, the BPP is the total percentage amount of groundwater allowed to be produced towards that agency’s or city’s demand. For the City, the remaining percentage of potable water demand is achieved through MET water. 6.3.1 Historical Groundwater Production The City pumps groundwater through its 21 active operating groundwater wells. One of the City’s wells is currently offline but is being rehabilitated with goals to be completed by the end of 2021. The City has experienced relative stability in the groundwater volume pumped for the last five years (Table 6-4).