The Urban Water Management Planning Act (Act) was adopted by the California state legislature as Assembly Bill (AB) 797 in 1983. The Act requires all urban water suppliers exceeding a threshold of more than 3,000 customers or supplying more than 3,000 acre-feet (AF) annually, to develop an UWMP and to update it every five years. The City of Fairfield’s water system exceeds both thresholds and consequently, has complied with provisions of the Act since inception. The DWR reviews all UWMPs to ensure that water suppliers are implementing effective water management strategies to support long-range planning activities.

An UWMP is a planning document that supports long-term water resource planning whose purpose is to ensure the availability of adequate water supplies for demands imposed by future growth. Urban water suppliers are required to assess the reliability of water sources over a 20-year planning horizon that considers normal, dry, and multiple dry years. A UWMP generally describes and evaluates water supply sources, projected population, future water demands, demand management measures, strategies for responding to water shortages, and other relevant information to ensure an appropriate level of reliability in water supply and demand forecasting.

In response to the severe drought of 2012-2016, new legislation in 2018 required that the water shortage contingency analysis, which was embedded in the 2015 UWMP, be replaced with a stand-alone water shortage contingency plan (WSCP). A stand-alone WSCP created separately from the UWMP will allow for amendments, as needed, without amending the corresponding UWMP. Therefore, the 2020 WSCP is contained as Appendix B to the 2020 UWMP. The WSCP is a document that provides a supplier with an action plan for a drought or catastrophic water supply shortage. Among the changes to the 2020 WSCP, are specific elements including six stages of shortage-level and a methodology to conduct an annual assessment of water supply as compared to demands. Although the new requirements are more prescriptive than previous versions, many of these elements have long been included in WSCPs, other sections of UWMPs, or as part of standard procedures and response actions.

The proposed UWMP and WSCP update provides a comprehensive look at the city’s water sources and evaluates available supply alongside potential demands based on projected growth over the period of 2020 to 2040. The primary water sources for the city have been, and will continue to be from the Solano Project (Lake Berryessa) and the State Water Project (SWP). Projected demands imposed by future growth were taken from land use information taken from the City’s General Plan and updated projections of the Northeast Specific Plan that includes the Train Station Specific Plan, the Villages, and Hawthorne Mill.

Past updates have also incorporated the implementation of water conservation goals, and this update calls for a continuation of water conservation best management practices that focus on residential water use audits, increased irrigation efficiency in both existing and newly landscaped areas, improved efficiency in the business community, and enhanced public outreach efforts. Sound planning and a history of investment in the City’s water utility has resulted in a highly reliable water supply to serve our community.

The City must adopt and submit both the UWMP and the WSCP to DWR by July 1, 2021. Council received the drafts of the UWMP and WSCP, and held a public hearing on June 1, 2021. All comments received have been addressed and the final UWMP and final WSCP prepared for adoption by council.