Drought

As the climate becomes hotter and drier, drought conditions may worsen. This can increase food prices, utility bills, and other costs. As water becomes scarcer, water quality may decrease as algal blooms occur, pollutants become more concentrated, and stressed natural systems no longer filter water. Drawing up high levels of ground water may cause further contamination, and in extreme cases, cause the ground to subside.

The City's current and historic drought response information can be found on the Drought webpage. The City of Cupertino continues to encourage our communities to keep conserving water. The purpose of this is to identify helpful information and links for residents and identify the City's efforts in water conservation.

 

What can you do? - Prepare for Drought

Conserve Water

  • Learn the Tips & Tricks of Landscape Care and Conservation: Curious about native California plants and waterwise landscapes? Learn the basics in these fun and informative videos.
  • Save Water at Home with Free Toolkit and Supplies: Valley Water’s free Water Wise Home Survey Do-It-Yourself Kit, which can be mailed directly to Cupertino residents, provides the tools needed to measure the flow rate of your shower, check for toilet leaks, and more. This interactive, family-friendly activity will help your household identify opportunities to reduce water use and save money. Once you test your fixtures, you can request free water-efficient showerheads, faucet aerators, and toilet flappers from Valley Waters shopping cart.
  • Get Started on Conservation Projects & Rebates: You can still research and make progress on water-conserving improvements to your home. Many projects, such as irrigation equipment upgrades or rainwater capture, may not require an onsite pre-inspection and can be fully completed through the online application process.
    • Graywater, Laundry to Landscape: The City of Cupertino has partnered with the Santa Clara Water District to offer rebates to Cupertino residents who install qualifying Laundry to Landscape systems in their homes.
    • Landscape Conversion: Eligible residents and businesses can apply for a rebate from the Santa Clara Valley Water District to help offset the cost of replacing a lawn or pool with drought-tolerant landscaping.
    • Rainwater Capture: Reduce cost of irrigating your landscape by harvesting rainwater from your roof. Cupertino residents can receive up to $35 per rain barrel and $1 per square foot of roof area converted to a rain garden.
    • Other rebates are available for certain water efficiency products and equipment for customers of the California Water Service Company and through the Santa Clara Valley Water District for customers of the San Jose Water Company.
  • Convert your outdoor space with help from Climate Victory Garden: Cupertino's Climate Victory Garden program is a pilot project designed to help residents navigate their front yard conversion project and rebate process. This project is no longer accepting new applicants. Learn more at Climate Garden.

Additional tips can be found on Valley Water's websites:

 

 

What is the City doing? - City Actions

In addition to the list of current and past water conservation actions taken by Cupertino, the 2023 Annex to the Santa Clara County Multijurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan includes a list of action items focused on addressing the impacts of climate change, including drought.

Actions on this list represent newly identified projects as well as measures identified in the City Climate Action Plan 2.0 (2022)(PDF, 10MB) such as Adaptation and Resilience Measure 1 (AR - 1): Increase usage of natural infrastructure solutions such as bioswales, rainwater storage systems, and permeable pavements to enhance infrastructure resiliency

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