{"id":176087,"date":"2025-12-09T21:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T21:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/176087\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T21:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T21:44:14","slug":"ask-lookout-why-has-santa-cruzs-water-demand-dropped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/176087\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask Lookout: Why has Santa Cruz\u2019s water demand dropped?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tQuick Take<\/p>\n

Santa Cruz\u2019s water usage remains at its lowest since the 1960s, despite population growth in the past few decades. Officials say cultural shifts, shrinking lawns and efficient appliances have helped keep demand low.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It comes up invariably whenever there is a discussion about development: Santa Cruz has a water demand problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t. Data from the city\u2019s water department shows that since 2000, water demand has fallen from about 4.5 billion gallons a year to around 2.5 billion \u2013 a 45% drop \u2013 even with roughly 8,000 more residents in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really at the floor of water use,\u201d said Heidi Luckenbach, the city\u2019s water director, referencing low water demand. She added that even after times of water restrictions \u2013 when residents were told to save and faced fines for excessive water use \u2013 instead of water use rebounding to prior levels, demand stayed low, and now has dropped to levels not seen since the 1960s.<\/p>\n

This dramatic decrease in water usage, experts say, comes from a combination of factors: increased water-consciousness and improved plumbing, which together have made modern homes and their yards much more water-efficient.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the low usage leaves the door open for new development, officials said, it doesn\u2019t change the need for improvements to the city\u2019s existing water systems.<\/p>\n

No one, nor even the city\u2019s water experts, anticipated this decline, and their 25-year projections of usage were way off, Luckenbach said. Making accurate projections about demand is difficult, she said, as it has to take into account hard-to-predict variables such as weather, new plumbing codes, human behavior and vacancy rates.<\/p>\n

The decline stems from both cultural shifts and better fixtures in homes \u2013 things like low-flow toilets and high-efficiency washing machines \u2013 said Brent Haddad, director of the Center for Integrated Water Research at UC Santa Cruz<\/a>. But the most important change, he said, is less outdoor irrigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil about 20 to 25 years ago, we had an aesthetic that said that a beautiful landscape around a house would have grass in it,\u201d Haddad said. \u201cThat meant that to make your house look pretty, you were spraying a lot of water on your lawn.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in recent years, shifting attitudes have embraced water-conscious practices such as xeriscaping<\/a> \u2013 water-efficient landscaping that makes use of native plants that need less water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Statewide legislation mirrors these shifts. In 2023, California passed a law<\/a> that prohibits the use of potable water for irrigating \u201cnonfunctional turf\u201d on commercial, industrial and many public or community spaces. The legislation defined \u201cnonfunctional turf\u201d as grass that \u201cserves no practical purpose for human activity or recreation.\u201d The bill will be implemented in stages over the next few years, with local water agencies enforcing it.<\/p>\n

While water departments across coastal California are seeing something of an about-face on water usage, Haddad said it\u2019s particularly important for Santa Cruz, which depends on local water sources like the San Lorenzo River<\/a>. Compared to many other cities that are connected to statewide water systems, Santa Cruz is primarily reliant on surface water from local rivers, with some groundwater in the mix, which means it has less flexibility in times of drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live with the water we have here,\u201d Haddad said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s highly intermittent. So we have to be good at saving or we\u2019ll run out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santa Cruz officials said new housing proposals don\u2019t necessarily mean a strain on the city\u2019s water. Updated regulations mean new construction is more water-efficient, and multiunit complexes avoid the water demands of yards.<\/p>\n

A recent report from the city\u2019s water department<\/a> projects that 12,000 new housing units will be built between now and 2050, which are expected to be accessory dwelling units (ADUs) or multifamily units. Updated 2025 projections forecast water demand in 2050 to be 2.9 billion gallons per year, a reduction of 2.2% compared to 2024 projections.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew development isn\u2019t changing the water supply solutions we need to pursue,\u201d said Lee Butler, the city\u2019s director of planning and community development. \u201cThe amount of demand new development puts onto our overall system is minor compared to what the need is if we have multiple dry years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Santa Cruz city planning director Lee Butler (left) discusses plans with Mayor Fred Keeley. Credit: Kevin Painchaud \/ Lookout Santa Cruz<\/p>\n

Butler said that reliability, not demand, is the biggest issue facing Santa Cruz\u2019s water system. To address this, the water department is retooling the city\u2019s water infrastructure and regulations to make sure there\u2019s enough water in times of drought.<\/p>\n

One way to make the water system more resilient is to build interties \u2013 pipelines that connect Santa Cruz to other water districts, such as Soquel Creek and Scotts Valley. In times of drought, cities can share to help meet water demands.<\/p>\n

Santa Cruz is also building aquifer storage wells to store water underground. During wet winters, water can be put away to be used in times of drought.<\/p>\n

Water officials said these investments, along with the rise in costs in general, is why rates continue to rise. Luckenbach said it\u2019s challenging to explain rate increases to customers already doing everything they can to reduce their own personal water usage and the city\u2019s overall water demand: \u201cThere\u2019s always that question of, \u2018Wait a minute, you\u2019re asking me to use less and now you\u2019re charging me more?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Butler said the water system is an essential piece of the puzzle of smart growth in Santa Cruz: \u201cI absolutely think that we\u2019ve got much more space for development on the water side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quick Take Santa Cruz\u2019s water usage remains at its lowest since the 1960s, despite population growth in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[112899,273,4791,111,139,69,8780,147,61719],"class_list":{"0":"post-176087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ask-lookout","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-instagram","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-premium","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-todays-top-story"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}