Oakland, CA Water Use Rules: Recycled Water Rules (2026)

Section 16.08.030 of the Oakland Municipal Code governs how the Advisory Agency acts on a tentative subdivision map. The Agency cannot act until it has a report from the City Engineer, unless more than 23 days have passed since the map was filed. After that, it must deny approval if it makes any one of the listed findings, labeled A through I. Finding I is the recycled water finding.

Finding I reaches only a subdivision located in a designated water reuse area under Section 13550 of the Water Code. Oakland defines a water reuse area as a geographic area identified by the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) where recycled water is either available now or expected to be available within ten years, as shown on the attached City of Oakland Water Reuse Areas map. A subdivision outside those areas does not face this finding.

Inside a reuse area, the denial rests on a stack of conditions. The design does not provide for the use of recycled water under Government Code Sections 65601 to 65607, yet recycled water has been determined to be available under Water Code Section 13550, no finding has been made that the water has an alternative higher or better use, its use is not economically justified for the project, and its use is not financially and technically feasible for the project.

Oakland spells out what "provide for the use of recycled water" means. The design must include a separate plumbing system, independent of the system serving domestic, residential and other potable water uses in the subdivision, that serves nonpotable uses in the common areas. The code names golf courses, parks, greenbelts, landscaped streets and landscaped medians, and the list is not limited to those. Recycled water itself is nonpotable water from the treatment of wastewater that is suitable for a direct beneficial use or controlled use that would not otherwise occur.

A subdivider in a reuse area can answer finding I by designing the separate common-area system or by documenting why a higher use, cost or feasibility exception applies. The surrounding chapter sets the clock and the paperwork. Under § 16.08.040 the Advisory Agency must send its report and the City Engineer's report to the subdivider within 50 days after the map is submitted, cut to 45 days when a certified environmental impact report covers the subdivision, and the subdivider and the Agency can extend those limits by mutual consent. Section 16.08.020 lets the Agency hold a public hearing, noticed under Government Code Sections 65090, 65091 and 66451.3. Section 16.08.010 requires five copies of the tentative map, prepared by a licensed surveyor or registered civil engineer, including a plan and profile of proposed sanitary, storm water or combined sewers and other public utilities.