Water shortage contingency plan
About
The Water Shortage Contingency Plan (WSCP) is a strategic planning document designed to prepare for and respond to water shortages. This WSCP complies with California Water Code (Water Code) Section 10632, which requires that every urban water supplier (Supplier) shall prepare and adopt a WSCP as part of its Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP). This level of detailed planning and preparation is intended to help maintain reliable supplies and reduce the impacts of supply interruptions.
The WSCP is the City of Santa Ana (City)’s operating manual that is used to prevent catastrophic service disruptions through proactive, rather than reactive, management. A water shortage, when water supply available is insufficient to meet the normally expected customer water use at a given point in time, may occur due to a number of reasons, such as drought, climate change, and catastrophic events. This plan provides a structured guide for the City to deal with water shortages, incorporating prescriptive information and standardized action levels, along with implementation actions in the event of a catastrophic supply interruption. This way, if and when shortage conditions arise, the City’s governing body, its staff, and the public can easily identify and efficiently implement pre-determined steps to manage a water shortage. A well-structured WSCP allows real-time water supply availability assessment and structured steps designed to respond to actual conditions, to allow for efficient management of any shortage with predictability and accountability. The
WSCP also describes the City’s procedures for conducting an Annual Water Supply and Demand Assessment (Annual Assessment) that is required by Water Code Section 10632.1 and is to be submitted to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) on or before July 1 of each year, or within 14 days of receiving final allocations from the State Water Project (SWP), whichever is later. The City’s 2020 WSCP is included as an appendix to its 2020 UWMP, which will be submitted to DWR by July 1, 2021. However, this WSCP is created separately from the City’s 2020 UWMP and can be amended, as needed, without amending the UWMP. Furthermore, the Water Code does not prohibit a Supplier from taking actions not specified in its WSCP, if needed, without having to formally amend its UWMP or WSCP.