Santa Rosa

Situated in a drought-prone area, the City of Santa Rosa, California faces water uncertainty and scarcity. To meet these challenges, Santa Rosa Water, the City’s water and wastewater utility, has taken a comprehensive approach to enhancing water efficiency, providing technical support, education, information, rebates, and incentives across all customer types, for over 25 years. These strategies have helped reduce demand by 44% between 1990 and 2020 and enabled the City to achieve an annual water savings of approximately 7,100 acre-feet per year. Through its plumbing codes and ordinances the City has achieved additional water savings of 7,900 acre-feet annually.

Project at Glance

Utility Overview

Utility: Santa Rosa Water
Location: Santa Rosa, CA
Population served: 173,628
Service area: 38 square miles

Challenges

Climate change
Drought
Equity and affordability

Solution

WaterNow Alliance partnered with the City of Santa Rosa to research the extent to which Latinx communities participate in water use efficiency programs, and to identify best practices to enhance outreach and increase these communities’ participation in these programs.