How are water needs for new development proposed in this plan being addressed?

Plan Bay Area is a programmatic document and the Draft EIR includes a program-level assessment of impacts related to water supply. The Draft EIR demonstrates the region faces questions regarding water supply deficiencies particularly during drought years. While numerous factors influence water demand, including employment growth, socio-economic characteristics, geographic distribution of the population, variation in precipitation levels, and water conservation practices, overall population growth is the most important factor. The projected population growth will occur with or without the Plan.

The proposed Plan Bay Area concentrates the projected growth within currently developed areas in the region, which reduces per capita water consumption. As a result, the proposed Plan should help protect the region’s water supply by reducing development pressure on rural areas; areas where per capita water use is typically higher and new water infrastructure would be needed to accommodate growth.

With a few exceptions, the areas anticipated for new development conform to local general plans and specific plans. Each of the Bay Area’s urban water suppliers must prepare an Urban Water Management Plan that assesses current and future demands for water.  The potential future development would have been accounted for in the local Urban Water Management Plan.