Zone 7 Board Meeting: 2025 Water Plan Hearing, 30-Year Contracts, and a Pleasanton Groundwater Deal
The Zone 7 Board of Directors met for its regular meeting on May 20, 2026, with all seven directors present. The board entered closed session at 6:00 p.m. and adjourned it at 6:26 p.m. with nothing to report. President Kathy Narum called the open session to order at 7:00 p.m.
Three substantive items moved through the agenda, each passing on a unanimous 7-0 vote.
Public hearing: the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan
Principal Water Resources Planner Neeta Bijoor presented the Draft 2025 Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP) and Water Shortage Contingency Plan. State law requires the UWMP to be updated every five years. It is a long-range document that evaluates water supplies and demands through 2045, with optional planning through 2050.
Bijoor explained that the plan shows reduced reliance on Delta supplies through conservation, conjunctive use of groundwater storage, and future supply projects including Sites Reservoir, the Chain of Lakes Conveyance System, and the Delta Conveyance Project. Under normal and single dry-year conditions, projected supplies are expected to meet demand throughout the planning horizon if those projects are built. Under a five-year drought scenario at the end of the horizon, a limited shortage could occur by the fifth year but could be addressed through conservation, transfers, and additional supply.
This was a hearing, not an adoption. Staff said the final plans would return to the board for adoption at the June 17, 2026 meeting.
Retail water supply contracts renewed through 2055
General Manager Valerie Pryor presented the renewal of Zone 7's Municipal and Industrial Water Supply Contracts with its retailers. Zone 7 has held long-term supply contracts with its retailers since 1962, and the current framework dates to renewals in the 1990s. Staff began the renewal process in 2023 and negotiated updated agreements that extend service through December 31, 2055.
The renewed contracts preserve the key principles of the existing agreements while updating language to reflect current law and practice. They confirm Zone 7's role as the exclusive water supplier and the exclusive groundwater sustainability agency, and include special provisions for Dublin San Ramon Services District and the City of Pleasanton. The board approved the renewals 7-0.
A cost-sharing deal with Pleasanton for two new wells
Acting Senior Geologist Colleen Winey presented a cooperating agreement with the City of Pleasanton for Phase II and Phase III of the Regional Groundwater Facilities Improvement Project. The preferred project adds two new production wells at Tennis Community Park and Hansen Park, roughly 4,000 feet of pipeline connecting them to the existing Hopyard Chloramination Facility, and improvements to that facility.
The numbers staff presented:
- Estimated production of about 9,700 acre-feet per year, with 3,500 acre-feet allocated to Pleasanton's groundwater pumping quota and 6,200 acre-feet available to Zone 7.
- A total project cost of about $42 million, split roughly 36% to Pleasanton (about $15 million) and 64% to Zone 7 (about $27 million).
- Zone 7 would own, operate, and maintain the new wells and continue to manage the basin sustainably.
Winey reported that the Pleasanton City Council approved moving forward in April 2026 and that retailers expressed support in May. The board approved the agreement 7-0.
Also on the agenda
The board approved its consent calendar and updated the Board of Directors Compensation and Expense Reimbursement Policy, last revised in June 2021, on a 7-0 vote. The minutes of the April 15 regular meeting and the prior meeting were approved as amended.
Source: Zone 7 Water Agency Board of Directors, regular board meeting minutes of May 20, 2026.
