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Water: Residential Water Use

 
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Why is this a Climate Smart indicator?

  • One of our Bold Goals is to reduce residential water consumption per person by 30 percent from 2009 levels by 2030.   

  • Reducing water usage helps ensure that we have a reliable water supply.   

  • In Santa Clara County, about half our water comes from far away sources such as the Sierra Nevada and the Sacramento Delta. If we use less water, we can import less, keeping more water in streams, rivers and lakes.   

  • Reducing water usage reduces energy used for pumping and treating water. This reduces greenhouse gas emissions.  

  • Reducing residential water usage can help to lower household water bills. 

What is the City doing to make progress on this indicator?

Completed

  • Update the City’s Water Efficiency webpage 

  • Provide water efficient messaging in five languages on the City’s Water Efficiency webpage 

  • Collaborate with local water retailers to evaluate Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) technologies to allow residents to access real-time, cloud-based water usage data 

  • Publish Water Shortage Contingency Plan (June 2021) 

  • Declare a 15% water shortage and restrict outdoor watering to two days per week (11/30/21) 

  • Amend the City’s water efficient landscape ordinance to require drought-tolerant landscape design for new and rehabilitated landscapes (adopted 5/3/22)

  • Oversee final stages of an AMI pilot study and procure a consultant to evaluate pilot results and determine next steps for municipal water customers

In Progress / Ongoing

  • Support legislative and regulatory items that further the City’s water conservation efforts 

  • Promote the new Valley Water free online shopping cart feature in which San José residents can order water saving devices and literature to be sent directly to them at no cost 

  • Work with Valley Water and local water retailers to increase outreach efforts to San José residents with ways to save water and avoid a water shortage in San José 

  • Climate Smart Challenge and GoGreen Teams  programs for San José residents, which encourage reducing water use

  • As of 2023, the Building Performance Ordinance’s Beyond Benchmarking component requires covered multifamily buildings that do not meet water efficiency standards to perform an audit, undertake retrocommissioning, or make water efficiency upgrades

  • Promote the Watersmart online portal that allows residents (Muni Water customers) to monitor their water usage, compare consumption to other homes of similar size, receive leak notifications, and receive money-saving recommendations. Promotional efforts are conducted via the City of San Jose’s website , door tags (SJ Muni Water field operators provide these in the field when addressing water waste and utility concerns), and mailers. A QR code gives customers quick access to the portal.

Planned

  • Expand water conservation online resources to eligible customers to allow access to historical water use, comparison with similar households, and advice for reducing water use 

Evaluating

  • Develop new municipal codes that further residential water conservation efforts

About the data

Sources

Data on annual total water use by residential customers of the San José Municipal Water System were provided by Municipal Water System staff for all years. 

2010, 2015, and 2020 values for residential water use were obtained from Urban Water Management Plans for the other two water retailers that serve San José residents, San Jose Water Company (SJWC) and Great Oaks Water Company. The amount of water sold in total by San Jose Water Company to residential customers was multiplied by 80 percent to calculate the amount of water supplied by SJWC within San José because approximately 80 percent of SJWC’s customers are within San José city limits. 

Water use by SJWC and Great Oaks Water Company residential customers for in between years was estimated by linearly interpolating between the available data points. Water use by SJWC and Great Oaks Water Company residential customers for years after 2020 was estimated by assuming that water use changed from year to year along the same trends as residential water use by San José Municipal Water System customers. 

The total amount of water sold by all three retailers to residential customers in San José per year was divided by the number of residents in San José and the number of days in a year to calculate residential water use per capita per day. 

Population data are from the California Department of Finance’s Demographics Unit (Table E-5). 

Limitations

Precise data on the number of SJWC customers located within San José city limits are not available. 

Actual residential water use figures for SJWC and Great Oaks Water Company are only available for every fifth year because water companies are only required to prepare Urban Water Management Plans every five years, and these plans do not provide consumption data for intervening years. 

Residential water use may have been unusually high in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place orders. 

Last updated

August 2023