How much water do we use?

How does Sacramento’s per-capita water use compare to other California cities? Well, we’re pretty high. Just check out the map. Why do we use so much water? It’s a double whammy: Unlike San Francisco, Sacramento has a load of green lawns planted in front of our homes. Second, we’re just barely getting water meters installed. Before metering, our cheap, flat water rates didn’t give us much of an incentive to turn off the sprinklers. Hopefully, by charging residents based on their water use, people will look for ways to save a few bucks on their bill.

This map is reprinted from a report from the California Water Plan: Update 2009 and based on data from the California Department of Finance and the state Department of Water Resources, where numbers were developed using DWR’s Public Water Systems Survey data.

* The North Lahontan Hydrological Region does not have enough usable data to compute for baseline values.