Fresno City Council adopts 2025 UWMP and WSCP: how water shortage stages work

Fresno City Council adopted the City’s 2025 Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP) and the 2025 Water Shortage Contingency Plan (WSCP) on June 25, 2026. The adoption matters for residents because it lays out what Fresno would do—stage by stage—if water supply conditions fall short, including the “water shortage stages,” who can declare them, what actions could be required, and the compliance/penalty framework the WSCP describes.

Important: Council’s adoption of the plans does not mean a shortage stage is currently in effect. Under the WSCP, stage-specific actions (and any enforcement described) are triggered only if the authorized official formally declares the appropriate water shortage stage.

What Fresno adopted on June 25, 2026

In Council materials for agenda item 26-808, the City reports that Council adopted:

• The 2025 UWMP, a required long-term planning document for water supply and demand.
• The 2025 WSCP, a separate plan that describes intended City actions if a water shortage occurs.

The legislation summary also notes a statutory exemption finding under California Water Code Section 10652 for CEQA purposes.

Quick primer: UWMP vs. WSCP

• UWMP (planning): The UWMP is the long-term water resource planning document—how the City forecasts and evaluates water supply and demand and what that means for reliability.
• WSCP (operations during shortages): The WSCP explains how Fresno would respond if shortages are projected or occur. It includes an annual assessment process and then defines water shortage stages, the response actions that correspond to each stage, and the WSCP’s compliance and enforcement approach.

How Fresno’s water shortage stages work (and what triggers them)

The WSCP defines five water shortage stages, plus a “no water shortage condition” state. The WSCP explains that the shortage levels are tied to the gap between supply and demand compared to normal-year conditions, using specific percent-shortage ranges.

Trigger logic (Table 2):

• No shortage (level 0): “No water shortage condition,” corresponding to year-round water use measures and “All” stage demand reduction measures.
• Stage 1 (0–10% shortage): Triggered when available supplies for the next year are projected to be less than 100% of projected demand (considering infrastructure constraints and an operational buffer), using the WSCP’s annual assessment process.
• Stage 2 (10–25% shortage): Triggered when available supplies are projected to be less than 90% of projected demand.
• Stage 3 (25–35% shortage): Triggered when available supplies are projected to be less than 75% of projected demand.
• Stage 4 (35–50% shortage): Triggered when available supplies are projected to be less than 65% of projected demand.
• Stage 5 (>50% shortage): Triggered when available supplies are projected to be less than 50% of projected demand.

The WSCP also makes clear that if a shortage progresses through multiple stages, measures from earlier stage(s) are implemented in addition to current stage actions.

Who can declare a shortage stage?

The WSCP describes an annual assessment process. In that process, City staff reviews key data and then determines a recommended conservation level that is brought for approval. It also states that:

• City Manager or Mayor approval: The recommended level of conservation is brought to the City Manager or Mayor for approval.
• City Manager/designee declaration: The City Manager (or designee) declares and implements the required conservation level.
• Duration and change: A conservation level declaration remains in effect until the City Manager (or designee) declares otherwise.
• Publication: If a conservation level declaration is made, the WSCP says it must be published at least once in a newspaper of general circulation.

The WSCP further states that any stage listed within the WSCP may be enacted by the City Manager, or designee, based on the water shortage condition.

What Fresno may require as stages rise

Table 3 lays out demand-reduction actions by shortage stage. For residents, the most familiar changes are typically outdoor irrigation limits, which move from voluntary at Stage 1 to mandatory at Stages 2–5.

Landscape irrigation schedule (Table 3):

• Stage 1: Voluntary limits on landscape irrigation times. Summer: three days/week; winter: one day/week.
• Stage 2: Limits become required. Summer: three days/week; winter: one day/week.
• Stage 3: Summer: two days/week; winter: one day/week.
• Stage 4: Summer: one day/week; winter: one day/week.
• Stage 5: Prohibit outdoor irrigation year-round (the WSCP frames this as “prohibit all landscape irrigation”).

The WSCP’s Table 3 also includes other stage-based actions—for example, for Stage 4 it specifies that pools and spas require covers when not in use (and it lists other “other” restrictions). For Stage 5, it includes a “moratorium or net zero demand increase” concept for new connections, describing temporary limits/bans on new water service connections within the service area.

Enforcement and penalties: what the WSCP says

The WSCP includes a compliance and enforcement section. It states that the City has penalties for violation of the water use restrictions in Table 3. It also explains that the City tracks customer usage using Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to enforce water wastage during shortage conditions, and that fines can’t be imposed on AMI meter data alone.

Penalty schedule (Table 6):

• Incident month 1: $0 (issued a Notice of Water Waste)
• Incident month 2: $25
• Incident month 3: $50
• Incident months 4–12: $100

The WSCP also says that if a customer has more than six incident months of water wastage within a one-year period, the City may implement additional measures, including:

• Requiring a landscape evaluation/lawn water audit/water budget (as appropriate) at the customer’s expense.
• Installation of flow restrictors or termination of water service.
• Requiring repairs to the customer’s watering system within 14 days of notice.

Because these steps are tied to violations during shortage conditions, residents should not assume penalties apply unless and until the City declares the relevant WSCP shortage stage and the corresponding restrictions are in effect.

What to watch next (resident-facing)

• Stage declarations: If the City Manager (or designee) declares a water shortage stage under the WSCP, that triggers the plan’s stage-specific restrictions and the compliance/penalty approach described in the WSCP.
• Publication: The WSCP says declarations are published at least once in a newspaper of general circulation. When you see an official notice, that’s the “start point” for the stage-related requirements.
• Review now: Fresno’s adopted WSCP document lays out the triggers and the possible stage-by-stage actions. Reading it ahead of time can help households plan irrigation and other water use before restrictions get tighter.

Sources

• City of Fresno — City Council agenda (June 25, 2026), agenda item 26-808
• 2025 Water Shortage Contingency Plan (WSCP) public draft — City of Fresno (June 1, 2026)

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