Item 21 - Public Hearing - Resolutions Approving the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan and the 2025 Water Shortage Contingency Plan

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2025 URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT PLAN MAY 2026/FINAL DRAFT/CAROLLO CHAPTER 3 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION Governed by a non-partisan seven-member City Council, the City of Santa Ana (City) is one of the oldest cities in Orange County, incorporated in 1886 and became an original member agency of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MET) on February 27, 1931. The Public Works Agency(PWA) Water Resources Division oversees and maintains the daily operations of the City's water system. The City's water service area covers 27.5 square miles and includes the City of Santa Ana and small neighborhoods in the City of Orange and Garden Grove. The water system is comprised of approximately 480 miles of water main, 21 groundwater wells, seven pump stations, 10 reservoirs with a storage capacity of 49 million gallons, four pressure regulating stations, and seven connection points to the MET. The system has an average demand of 30 million gallons per day (mgd) from its roughly 45,810 metered service connections. The City's climate is characterized by southern California's "Mediterranean" climate with mild winters, warm summers, and moderate rainfall. In terms of land use, the City is a predominantly single- and multi-family residential community. Moving forward, the City will continue planning for its Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocation, and future planned developments beyond 2025 will primarily be multiuse projects, in the 'focus areas' listed in the General Plan of the City. The current population (2025) of 315,271 is projected to decrease by 1.5 percent over the next 25 years to 310,477. This equates to an annual decline rate of 0.06 percent. 3.1 Agency Overview This section provides information on the formation and history of the City, its organizational structure, and relationship to MET. .14 Formation and Purpose The City is one of the oldest cities in Orange County incorporated in 1886.The City was, for many years, a ranching community with some farming. To serve this growing agricultural and domestic community, a municipal water system was formed in 1886. The original source of water supply for the City was from shallow irrigation wells.As the City continued to grow and change from agriculture to an urban community,the need for additional sources of water was recognized if economic development were to continue. To tap into water sources from outside the area, the City joined with 12 other Southern California cities to form and be an original member agency of the MET on February 27, 1931. MET, as a regional wholesaler, supplies imported water to Southern California from the Colorado River and from the Bay-Delta in Northern California. MET's primary purpose is to develop, store and distribute water at wholesale rates to its member public agencies for domestic and municipal uses.The City's location is shown on Figure 3.1. In 1933,the Orange County Water District (OCWD) was formed by a special act of the State Legislature to manage Orange County's groundwater supply and protection of the County's rights to water in the Santa Ana River. In 1953, the City became a member of OCWD. CITY OF SANTA ANA