Santa Ana, CA Water Use Rules: Recycled Water Rules (2026)

Under § 39-32, the city buys recycled water from the Orange County Water District and resells it, as OCWD's contractor, to users inside Santa Ana's service area, but only once OCWD's Green Acres Project treatment and distribution system is fully operational, all regulatory permits are issued, and OCWD has secured the necessary rights-of-way. The city has no duty to deliver more recycled water than the user's own recycled water user agreement allows, and a user may not resell any of it. Delivered water must meet the current standards of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board-Santa Ana Region and state, local, and county health agencies, at the minimum and maximum pressures set in the user's agreement (§ 39-33).

The city owns and maintains the control valves on each side of the meter and the meter itself, while the user owns and maintains everything on their side of the customer control valve and is billed for everything the meter measures (§ 39-34). Use is restricted to the property and purposes listed in the recycled water user agreement and to what's legally permissible under state law and city, OCWD, and regional board rules (§ 39-38). If the city has to terminate recycled water service to protect public health, or if OCWD stops producing it, the city can supply potable water instead; for the first 30 days the user still pays the recycled-water rate, after which the regular potable rate applies unless the shortfall is the city's own operational fault (§ 39-35(d)-(e)). The city's responsibility ends at the user's side of the meter (§ 39-40).