Water Utility to Tell Council Committee Pasadena Has Enough Supply Through 2050, Even in Drought

Pasadena Water and Power will ask the City Council to adopt a 25-year planning document that says the city has enough water to meet projected demand through 2050 — even if there is a repeat of what the staff report calls “the driest five-year sequence to date.”

The utility will preview the state-mandated report and its finding to the Municipal Services Committee on Tuesday before it advances to a Council public hearing on June 15.

The draft 2025 Urban Water Management Plan and companion Water Shortage Contingency Plan are required every five years under the California Urban Water Management Planning Act and must be submitted to the California Department of Water Resources by July 1, 2026. The Municipal Services Committee is an advisory committee of the City Council; its review on June 9 is a recommending step, and the City Council retains final authority over adoption.

For Pasadena households and businesses, the staff report carries a key reassurance: “Adoption of the UWMP and WSCP does not impose rate changes or operational limitations on residents or businesses.” The documents would outline how Pasadena would ensure reliable, sustainable water service “in normal years as well as during drought or other shortage conditions,” and “Implementation actions described in the plans occur only if specific shortage triggers are met,” according to the staff report.

Pasadena Water and Power supplied approximately 26,400 acre-feet of water in 2025 to its more than 38,600 customer accounts, serving approximately 165,500 people across a service area of about 26 square miles. The service area includes the city of Pasadena and portions of the unincorporated areas of Altadena, East Pasadena and San Gabriel, with approximately 15 percent of the service population located outside the city’s legal boundary.

The utility’s water portfolio blends local groundwater from the Raymond Basin with imported supplies from The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. About one-third to one-half of supply typically comes from groundwater, with the remainder purchased from the regional wholesaler. Based on the analyses in the plan, the utility anticipates sufficient water supplies to meet projected demands through 2050 in all hydrologic year types — normal, single-dry and multiple-dry years — with imported water purchased in volumes needed to bridge any gap between local supply and demand.

The drought-stress test is built on the 2014-2018 period, which the staff report identifies as “the driest five-year sequence to date.” Under the multiple-dry-year projection summarized in the report, total supply and demand would each total 29,566 acre-feet in 2030, 29,237 acre-feet in 2035, 28,665 acre-feet in 2040, 28,299 acre-feet in 2045, and 28,371 acre-feet in 2050.

The Water Shortage Contingency Plan, included as Appendix E of the larger document, would provide pre-planned guidance for managing and mitigating water supply shortages based on Pasadena’s existing “Water Waste Prohibitions and Water Supply Shortage Plans” under Pasadena Municipal Code Chapter 13.10. Due to the sufficiency of supplies projected in the drought risk assessment, the contingency plan is not anticipated to be implemented unless certain water shortage conditions are met.

The plan also documents how far Pasadena has already pushed conservation. The state’s Water Conservation Act of 2009 — known as Senate Bill X7-7 — required a 20 percent cut in per capita water use by Dec. 31, 2020, against a baseline drawn from 1995-2004 averages; Pasadena hit 153 gallons per capita per day that year, about 27 percent below a calculated baseline of 211 gallons per capita per day, the staff report states. Future projections through the 25-year planning horizon include mandated reductions under Senate Bill 606 and Assembly Bill 1668, with State Water Resources Control Board enforcement of more stringent standards beginning in 2027.

If the City Council ultimately adopts the plan as recommended by staff, it would find the documents exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under State CEQA Guidelines Section 15282(v), conduct a public hearing on June 15 to receive comments, and approve a resolution immediately following that hearing. Sixty-day notification letters were sent to affected cities and Los Angeles County in January, the public draft was published on the utility’s website on May 7, and public hearing notifications were published in the Pasadena Press on May 18 and May 25.

The Municipal Services Committee is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9, in the Council Chamber, Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Ave., Room S249, in Pasadena. For more information call (626) 744-4124  or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas/.