District Fast Facts
District Fast Fact
Who we are
Founded in 1929, the Santa Clara Valley Water District provides safe, clean water; flood protection; and stewardship of streams.
Value of water
Most of the human body consists of water, and we need water to maintain the normal functioning of our bodies and minds. Safe, clean water is imperative not just to human health but also to the health of the environment. Clean, flowing water promotes healthy ecosystems, enhancing the natural beauty of Santa Clara County and the quality of life of our residents and visitors. At a penny and a half per gallon, tap water is cost-efficient when compared to purchasing bottled water. One person uses, on average, 69 gallons of water a day in Silicon Valley for everything from drinking to bathing— about $1 worth of water. Replacing those gallons of tap water with bottled water would cost about $60 a day. That’s about $21,500 a year!
Water sources
Local water: Groundwater and local surface water are Santa Clara County’s original source of water supply. Local rainfall and runoff flows into reservoirs for storage and blending with imported water. The water is released into creeks and ponds to augment natural percolation and maintain groundwater levels. Some of the local surface water is processed at drinking water treatment plants.
Imported water: More than half of the county’s water supply comes from hundreds of miles away—first as snow or rain in the Sierra Nevada range of northern and eastern California, then as water in rivers that flow into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. We use this imported water for our water treatment plants and groundwater replenishment.
Groundwater: Santa Clara County’s largest reservoir is beneath our feet. Our groundwater basins hold more water than our 10 surface reservoirs combined. As the groundwater management agency for Santa Clara County, we actively manage our groundwater basins, replenishing them with local and imported water through our percolation ponds and stream beds. If more water is pumped out of the ground than is replenished, the result can be the sinking of the land. Called subsidence, this can have costly effects on infrastructure and water quality. Maintaining our groundwater levels is critical for ensuring a reliable water supply, storing water for use during droughts and shortages, and preventing subsidence.
Purified water: Purifying recycled water provides a drought-resilient, locally controlled water supply that will help us meet the needs of Silicon Valley now and into the future. The Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center, the largest purification facility in Northern California, purifies recycled water to near-distilled quality using proven technology—microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet disinfection. The result is up to 8 million gallons a day of highly purified water that meets California’s strict drinking water quality standards. Valley Water plans to develop 24,000 acre-feet-per-year potable reuse by 2035. For more information, please visit Purewater4u.org.
Conservation: Water conservation is an essential component in providing a reliable water supply to current and future generations. Our long-term water supply plan calls for water savings of more than 32 billion gallons annually by 2030. The population in Santa Clara County has increased by 27% throughout the years between 1990 and 2023, while water demand has decreased by about 16% in that same period.
Water supply
Dams/Reservoirs: The storage capacity of Santa Clara County’s 10 reservoirs can hold enough water for 340,000 families of five for one year. They catch a portion of the storm runoff that otherwise would flow into San Francisco and Monterey bays. Currently, our restricted capacity can hold enough water for 125,000 families of five for one year.
Water treatment plants: We operate three water treatment plants that clean and disinfect imported water and water from four of our local reservoirs. The three water treatment plants can produce as much as 220 million gallons of drinking water a day.
Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center: The award-winning facility uses advanced technologies to purify secondary treated wastewater and provides clean high-quality water through processes like microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light.
Water quality laboratory: Ensuring all of our water supplies are safe and clean is our highest priority, and we test water quality parameters in water produced from each of our three drinking water treatment plants, Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center, reservoirs, groundwater basins, and imported water sources. Valley Water’s state-of-the-art water quality lab performs over 150,000 tests each year. Our treated water consistently meets, or exceeds, all applicable water quality standards
Watersheds: Flood protection and stream stewardship
Flood protection projects: Valley Water manages about 333 miles of creeks in Santa Clara County. To provide flood protection to the county’s growing community, we build projects such as the Guadalupe River and Lower Silver Creek flood protection projects and manage our flood protection infrastructure. Our projects have protected nearly 100,000 parcels, and we have several projects planned or underway to protect 25,000 more over the next five years.
Stream maintenance: Each year, Valley Water crews can be seen out in our creeks working to remove sediment, stabilize banks and remove excessive vegetation. This work is critical for maintaining our waterways and preparing for the rainy season. Managing sediment and vegetation growth in streams ensures flood protection projects continue to provide maximum flood protection.
Sandbags:Each winter, sandbags are provided to help protect residents from floodwaters. You can download a map with a listing of sandbag sites by visiting
valleywater.org/sandbags.
Healthy creeks and ecosystems: Approximately one-third of the more than 800 miles of creeks and rivers flowing through the valley and foothills of Santa Clara County are owned or managed by Valley Water.
The health of a creek reflects the conditions throughout the watershed, not just those along its banks. Valley Water's environmental work protects, enhances, or
restores watershed functions, wetlands, riparian and aquatic habitat for fisheries and wildlife. Our efforts include removing trash and debris from waterways, placing large woody debris or gravels in creeks, improving fish passage in creeks, reducing methylmercury in our streams and reservoirs, keeping invasive species out of waterways, and partnering with the community on environmental stewardship activities.
Valley Water also partners with cities and the county to provide open space and recreational opportunities at many of its 10 reservoirs and along creeks throughout the county. Since 2000, public access to more than 70 miles of new creekside trails has been made available in the county. For more information about local watersheds, go to bit.ly/VWwatersheds.