Yuba City adopts 2025 Urban Water Management Plan, projecting robust supply through 2050

Yuba City adopts 2025 Urban Water Management Plan, projecting robust supply through 2050The City Council approved its 25-year water blueprint, which anticipates a population increase to nearly 87,000 while forecasting decreased residential demand due to state efficiency mandates.

The 2025 Urban Water Management Plan stress-tests the city's water supply against normal, single-dry, and five-year drought scenarios through 2050.

Despite projected population growth, existing residential water use is forecasted to decrease due to "demand hardening" and stricter state efficiency regulations.

The city's supply portfolio, which includes State Water Project allocations and Feather River rights, is projected to maintain annual surpluses across all drought scenarios.

The council also adopted an updated Water Shortage Contingency Plan to manage potential future supply deficits through tiered demand reductions.

The Yuba City City Council unanimously adopted its 2025 Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP) and Water Shortage Contingency Plan (WSCP) on June 2, 2026, outlining a 25-year strategy to ensure water supply reliability through 2050. Required by the State of California every five years, the UWMP stress-tests the municipality's water infrastructure against normal, single-dry, and multi-year drought scenarios. According to a presentation by consultant Robert Heather, the city's population is projected to grow from just under 71,000 to approximately 87,000 by 2050, utilizing data from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments' 2025 blueprint. Despite the anticipated population growth, the plan projects a decrease in existing residential water demand. Heather attributed this trend to "demand hardening" and stricter state regulatory conditions regarding water use efficiency. New residential developments will be subject to tighter irrigable acreage limits, while existing customers are expected to lower usage in response to state directives and a broader community shift toward conservation. To meet projected demands, Yuba City will rely on a diverse portfolio of water assets. The city's supplies include a contract with the California Department of Water Resources for State Water Project water, appropriative water rights on the Feather River, a contract with the North Yuba Water District, and local groundwater production. The UWMP's drought risk assessment conservatively assumed a 5% increase in demand during dry periods—accounting for increased landscape watering before drought declarations take effect—and concluded that the city maintains a sufficient surplus to meet annual demands across all modeled scenarios. "High level, you guys have plenty of water to maintain reliability on an annual basis," Heather told the council, though he noted that monthly allocations, particularly from the State Water Project, require careful monitoring by city staff to manage short-term deficits. Alongside the UWMP, the council adopted an updated WSCP. The contingency plan provides a framework for responding to potential supply deficits, beginning with voluntary public outreach and conservation messaging, and escalating to mandatory, allocation-based reductions during severe shortages.