Cal. WAT § 10632 — California Code / Code wat / Division 6 / Part 2.6 / Chapter 3 / Article 2 / Section 10632
Section 10632
Status: in_force

(a) Every urban water supplier shall prepare and adopt a water shortage contingency plan as part of its urban water management plan that consists of each of the following elements:

(1) The analysis of water supply reliability conducted pursuant to Section 10635.

(2) The procedures used in conducting an annual water supply and demand assessment that include, at a minimum, both of the following:

(A) The written decisionmaking process that an urban water supplier will use each year to determine its water supply reliability.

(B) The key data inputs and assessment methodology used to evaluate the urban water supplier’s water supply reliability for the current year and one dry year, including all of the following:

(i) Current year unconstrained demand, considering weather, growth, and other influencing factors, such as policies to manage current supplies to meet demand objectives in future years, as applicable.

(ii) Current year available supply, considering hydrological and regulatory conditions in the current year and one dry year. The annual supply and demand assessment may consider more than one dry year solely at the discretion of the urban water supplier.

(iii) Existing infrastructure capabilities and plausible constraints.

(iv) A defined set of locally applicable evaluation criteria that are consistently relied upon for each annual water supply and demand assessment.

(v) A description and quantification of each source of water supply.

(3) (A) Six standard water shortage levels corresponding to progressive ranges of up to 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 percent shortages and greater than 50 percent shortage. Urban water suppliers shall define these shortage levels based on the suppliers’ water supply conditions, including percentage reductions in water supply, changes in groundwater levels, changes in surface elevation or level of subsidence, or other changes in hydrological or other local conditions indicative of the water supply available for use. Shortage levels shall also apply to catastrophic interruption of water supplies, including, but not limited to, a regional power outage, an earthquake, and other potential emergency events.

(B) An urban water supplier with an existing water shortage contingency plan that uses different water shortage levels may comply with the requirement in subparagraph (A) by developing and including a cross-reference relating its existing categories to the six standard water shortage levels.

(4) Shortage response actions that align with the defined shortage levels and include, at a minimum, all of the following:

(A) Locally appropriate supply augmentation actions.

(B) Locally appropriate demand reduction actions to adequately respond to shortages.

(C) Locally appropriate operational changes.

(D) Additional, mandatory prohibitions against specific water use practices that are in addition to state-mandated prohibitions and appropriate to the local conditions.

(E) For each action, an estimate of the extent to which the gap between supplies and demand will be reduced by implementation of the action.

(5) Communication protocols and procedures to inform customers, the public, interested parties, and local, regional, and state governments, regarding, at a minimum, all of the following:

(A) Any current or predicted shortages as determined by the annual water supply and demand assessment described pursuant to Section 10632.1.

(B) Any shortage response actions triggered or anticipated to be triggered by the annual water supply and demand assessment described pursuant to Section 10632.1.

(C) Any other relevant communications.

(6) For an urban retail water supplier, customer compliance, enforcement, appeal, and exemption procedures for triggered shortage response actions as determined pursuant to Section 10632.2.

(7) (A) A description of the legal authorities that empower the urban water supplier to implement and enforce its shortage response actions specified in paragraph (4) that may include, but are not limited to, statutory authorities, ordinances, resolutions, and contract provisions.

(B) A statement that an urban water supplier shall declare a water shortage emergency in accordance with Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 350) of Division 1.

(C) A statement that an urban water supplier shall coordinate with any city or county within which it provides water supply services for the possible proclamation of a local emergency, as defined in Section 8558 of the Government Code.

(8) A description of the financial consequences of, and responses for, drought conditions, including, but not limited to, all of the following:

(A) A description of potential revenue reductions and expense increases associated with activated shortage response actions described in paragraph (4).

(B) A description of mitigation actions needed to address revenue reductions and expense increases associated with activated shortage response actions described in paragraph (4).

(C) A description of the cost of compliance with Chapter 3.3 (commencing with Section 365) of Division 1.

(9) For an urban retail water supplier, monitoring and reporting requirements and procedures that ensure appropriate data is collected, tracked, and analyzed for purposes of monitoring customer compliance and to meet state reporting requirements.

(10) Reevaluation and improvement procedures for systematically monitoring and evaluating the functionality of the water shortage contingency plan in order to ensure shortage risk tolerance is adequate and appropriate water shortage mitigation strategies are implemented as needed.

(b) For purposes of developing the water shortage contingency plan pursuant to subdivision (a), an urban water supplier shall analyze and define water features that are artificially supplied with water, including ponds, lakes, waterfalls, and fountains, separately from swimming pools and spas, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 115921 of the Health and Safety Code.

(c) The urban water supplier shall make available the water shortage contingency plan prepared pursuant to this article to its customers and any city or county within which it provides water supplies no later than 30 days after adoption of the water shortage contingency plan.