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Proposed Edits to the Palo Alto UWMP <br />Based on the YRA letter of April 30, 2026 <br />Prepared for: Palo Alto Utilities Advisory Commission · Meeting of May 6, 2026 · Item 4 <br />Utsav Gupta, Commissioner <br /> <br />How to read this document <br />Each section below reproduces the actual draft 2025 UWMP language verbatim and shows proposed edits <br />inline. Color and formatting are used as follows: <br />Marker Meaning <br />black, plain Existing UWMP draft text — unchanged. <br />blue, bold Proposed insertion (added language). <br />red, strikethrough Proposed deletion (removed language). <br /> <br />Scope and posture. This memo does not propose replacing SFPUC's water-supply reliability numbers with <br />non-SFPUC numbers. Staff has stated that the City is required to use SFPUC's information in the UWMP <br />itself (May 6 Item 4 staff report, p. 9). The edits below instead (i) clarify the provenance of those numbers <br />(they are SFPUC modeling outputs, not Palo Alto-adopted planning standards), (ii) add a transparent <br />sensitivity using SFPUC's own Finance Bureau projections, (iii) disclose the SFPUC's end-of-year storage <br />levels under its Design Drought, (iv) add a 2021–2023 Water Shortage Emergency lookback to the financial- <br />impact discussion, (v) record Palo Alto's reservation of contractual rights regarding >20% allocations, and <br />(vi) note Palo Alto's potential cost exposure under the AWS Program. All proposed insertions are additive; <br />no SFPUC figure is removed. <br /> <br />────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── <br />Edit 1 — Section 1, Lay Description (p. 12) <br />Subject: framing the 48% rationing figure as an SFPUC scenario, not a Palo Alto-adopted standard. <br />Existing draft text (verbatim, UWMP p. 12): <br />Given the City's forecasted water demand and projections of water supply availability provided by the SFPUC, <br />the City anticipates the need to implement water use reductions of up to 48% in consecutive dry year <br />scenarios post implementation of the Bay Delta Plan Amendment. During the drought that occurred in 2012– <br />2016 (2015 drought), the City was able to reduce water use by 31% by restricting landscape irrigation to two <br />times per week as well as a number of other measures. This was followed by the drought that occurred in <br />2020–2023 (2021 drought) during which the City reduced water use by 15% in response to voluntary water <br />reductions measures. <br />Proposed revision (edits shown inline):