Drought and Water Conservation

Thank you so much for your inquiry.

As a countywide wholesale water agency, Valley Water relies on local retailers to deliver water to homes and businesses throughout the county. The City of Milpitas is the water retailer for the Elmwood Correctional Facility. The City of Milpitas gets its water from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) and Valley Water. Depending on how the City of Milpitas operates its distribution system, the Elmwood Correctional Facility may receive water from either one of these two suppliers. Despite the presence of occasional tastes and odors, which are harmless to your health, we want to assure you that all the tap water that Valley Water supplies meets federal and state standards for safety.

Please contact the City of Milpitas directly at 408-586-2600 or at https://www.milpitas.gov/750/Water-Services to get water quality information specific to your location and, if warranted, to request testing of the water at your facility to rule out any potential tastes and odors coming from the internal plumbing. 

Please let us know if you have additional questions or concerns.

Valley Water

Hello,

Thank you for question. The answer depends on your water retailer. Some retailers have restrictions related to only washing cars at facilities that reuse water. We recommend washing cars at facilities that reuse water. This is for both conservation and surface water quality reasons.

If you live in a water retailer service area that allows washing cars at home, then you will need to use a shut-off nozzle on your hose. You also need to keep any runoff out of the storm drain, and instead redirect as much runoff as possible to your landscaping.

• To find your water retailer, check out Valley Water’s Find My Retailer page
• For a free shut-off nozzle and other water saving tools, visit our Online Shopping Cart
• For car wash coupons and other discounts, click here

Thanks for writing,

Valley Water’s water waste inspectors respond to reports of water waste and violations of local water use restrictions. To report water waste, you may select any of these convenient options:

1. Download our Access Valley Water app or go to access.valleywater.org/customer/s/ and select the “Conserve Water & Save with Rebates” category, or search “water waste” in the search bar.

2. Call (408) 630-2000

3. Email WaterWise@valleywater.org Please include photos, cross-streets and landmarks with water waste reports whenever possible.

Dear resident,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

State law prohibits Homeowners Associations from fining or obstructing homeowners implementing conservation measures, including installing water-efficient landscaping, during drought. And when there is no longer a drought state of emergency, HOAs cannot prevent them from maintaining that landscaping or require them to remove it. As per the California Water Boards HOA Fact Sheet:

When Not in Drought:

• An HOA cannot fine or require a homeowner to reverse or remove the water-efficient landscaping measures upon the conclusion of the drought state of emergency (Civil Code section 4735(e)). 
• An HOA cannot enforce architectural or landscaping guidelines or policies that prohibit either the use of low water-using plants as a replacement of existing turf, or the use of artificial turf or any other synthetic surface that resembles grass (Civil Code section 4735(a)). 

During and In Response to a Declared Drought Emergency:

• An HOA cannot issue a fine or assessment on a homeowner for reducing or eliminating the watering of vegetation or lawns during a state or locally-declared drought emergency (Civil Code section 4735(c)). 
• An HOA cannot enforce architectural or landscaping guidelines or policies that prohibit, or have the effect of prohibiting, compliance with most local water-efficient landscape ordinances.
  
  

While Valley Water currently has no restriction that would conflict with the HOA’s landscaping rules you have listed, we encourage low water use landscaping and offer a rebate for the conversion of lawns or pools to lower water using alternatives.  Applicants are required to install enough low water use plants to cover 50% of the converted lawn area at maturity, however, if 90% was needed by the HOA, that would be allowed in the rebate as long as the plants used were low water using. While cactus and succulents are on the rebate program’s Qualifying Plant List, the extensive list also includes other low water using plants that would likely align with your reequipments.  Adding a covering of mulch to bare soil is strongly recommended in all cases, however, for rebate purposes, we would also allow the installation of rocks or gravel as the ground cover instead of mulch. 

You can read our program rules and requirements found here.

For more information about our Landscape Rebate Program, visit watersavings.org and you can also speak directly with a member of the team by emailing conservation@valleywater.org.

Thank you for the feedback. We strive to provide affordable water to retailers, and retailers are responsible for billing customers. Surcharge programs are also administered by retailers.

While retailers do help Valley Water in achieving its mandatory conservation target, they can best address questions or concerns on those programs as they administer them.

Valley Water’s Find My Water Retailer webpage provides direct links to your local water waste rules and for many water retailers, you’ll also find guides for how to read your water meter. The principle is the same with most types of meters. You might find this guide from San Jose Water Company helpful. The most reliable way to check your water use between receiving water bills is to become familiar with how to read your water meter.

We also recommend you visit our Understanding Your Water Use page. Here, you’ll find step-by-step information of how to measure and track your water usage, as well as helpful videos to guide you every step of the way in ensuring you have control and understanding of your water use.

In addition to our dozens of conservation rebate programs and free services for the public, Valley Water has helped fund advancement of near-real time water meters called Advanced Metering Infrastructure. We also help fund Home Water Use Reports for many water retailers that help the community interpret their water bill, track their water usage and connect with relevant rebate programs to save water. We also offer rebates for flow sensors to catch leaks in irrigation systems. Through our rebate programs to improve indoor and outdoor watering efficiency, the community has saved nearly 77,000 acre-feet per year, which is more than half of what we import every year from outside the county.

Finally, Valley Water continues to work on new water sources as identified in our Water Supply Master Plan through recycled water, new storage and stormwater capture.

You can learn more by visiting, www.watersavings.org.

Hello! Thank you for your question. Valley Water is a water wholesaler that mostly provides water to local water retailers serving homes and businesses. Please visit this site or use this tool to look up the water retailer serving your home. You should be able to follow up with your retailer for that information or possibly request a new copy of the letter. 

Hi,

During our Groundwater Management Plan public meeting, we received a question of similar nature. You can see Valley Water staff's response on the meeting recording (at 1:05:31) at the link below. 

https://youtu.be/uyXUb_A9fmo?t=3931

During this meeting, staff discussed the nature of that shallow groundwater and how water used during dewatering generally ends up in the same place it would have under natural conditions but takes a different path to get there. 

Staff also discussed the challenges of creating the necessary infrastructure to recapture that water at temporary construction sites and the water quality issues related to reusing that water in a meaningful way. Valley Water will continue to explore strategies to better understand dewatering and the potential for expanded reuse.