3940-109 Water Use Objective Report (WUOR)

To implement the urban sector water use element of the Water Supply Strategy, and to implement 2018 water conservation legislation (AB 1668 and SB 606), the Water Resources Control Board (through the Office of Research, Planning, and Performance; the Division of Drinking Water; and the Division of Information Technology) proposes to develop a new reporting form within the existing Water Board system (the “SAFER Clearinghouse”). The new form would facilitate the reporting requirements associated with the proposed regulation to “Make Conservation a California Way of Life” (MCCWL). (Note: this proposal is different from another proposal to implement a different part of the Water Supply Strategy. This proposal is to add a module to the SAFER Clearinghouse and to interact with distinct data systems.) MCCWL calls for urban retail water suppliers (water agencies that deliver 3,000+ acre-feet of water to customers on an annual basis) to calculate “urban water use objectives” (objectives). An objective is the sum of data-driven and standard-based budgets for a subset of urban uses (e.g., residential indoor water use). Successful implementation of MCCWL will depend on a robust data collection form with built-in data validation and an intuitive interface. Furthermore, the data collection protocol shall adhere to Water Code section 10609.15, which calls for minimizing duplicative data reporting and adhering to the Open and Transparent Water Data Act. The proposed reporting form will utilize information gathered from other Water Board datasets to pre-fill many corresponding fields within the new report. Because the proposed reporting form will integrate existing data, it would enable agencies to submit the required information in a low-cost, streamlined manner.