PlainWater

Santa Cruz County, California

SDWIS compliance plate

Sheet CA087 · Santa Cruz County 96 sys · 2,563 viol · #254/3254

VIOL-SEVERE · HEALTH-MID · RANK-TOP · PHOTO-FINISH · PFAS-MID · SRC-GW · SYS-MID · BOOK-FULL

  • VIOL-SEVERE 93.8% flagged
  • HEALTH-MID 32.9% health
  • RANK-TOP #254/3254
  • PHOTO-FINISH ±0.2 pp
  • PFAS-MID 37.5% detect
  • SRC-GW GW lead 76%
  • SYS-MID 96 systems
  • BOOK-FULL 7/7 fields

Nearest flagged-rate peer: San Diego County (+ 0.2 pp flagged-rate)

According to EPA SDWIS county population served used on /counties, Santa Cruz County ranks #254 of 3,254 counties by people served, and #26 of 58 counties in California. See methodology · corpus placement.

Santa Cruz County standing, mid-flagged corpus third

Flagged-system rate 93.8% is in the corpus middle third (≤ 100.0% flagged) across 2,973 counties with ≥3 SDWIS systems . Health-based share 32.9% is health-based share above the upper third (> 24.5%) . UCMR5 detect rate 37.5% is UCMR5 detect rate above the tested-pool upper third (> 33.3%) . Population served ranks #254 of 3,254 · #26 of 58 in California.

Flagged-rate neighbourhood around Santa Cruz County

Lowest/highest poles plus in-state counties nearest Santa Cruz County on % of SDWIS systems with ≥1 violation. Full ladder: /counties.

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Alpine · lowest Riverside · near San Diego · near Sutter · highest 70% 93.4% 93.5% 93.8% 93.9% 93.9% 97.1%

Source: EPA SDWIS (county aggregates) As of 2026-05-15

Water Systems

System Name Population Violations PFAS
Santa Cruz Water Department 94,626 15 Clean
Watsonville, City Of 65,231 2 Detected
Soquel Creek Water District 40,809 4 Clean
San Lorenzo Valley Water Dist 21,145 20 Detected
Cabrillo College 12,000 7 Clean
Scotts Valley Water District 11,197 21 Detected
Slvwd - Felton Water System 4,340 19 Clean
Central Water District 2,726 8 -
Aptos High School 1,348 14 -
Mission Springs Conference Center 1,310 35 -
Mt. Hermon Association, Inc. 1,176 7 -
Csp- Kirkwood Entrance 1,154 0 -
Big Basin Water Company 1,120 102 -
Forest Lakes MWC 1,067 38 -
Monte Vista Christian School 1,051 19 -
Alianza Charter School/Wcsa 670 17 -
Csp - Rancho del Oso 669 20 -
Trout Gulch Mutual Water Company 614 23 Clean
Seventh Day Adventist Camp 578 12 -
Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds 550 14 -
Mystery Spot Snack Shack 500 6 -
Summit West Mutual Water Co. 481 41 -
Buena Vista Migrant Center 455 18 -
Villa del Monte MWC 419 30 -
Las Cumbres Mutual Water Co 402 249 -
Monterey Bay Academy 400 22 -
Forest Springs 385 267 -
San Andreas Mutual Water Co 378 4 -
Davenport County Sanitation 350 27 -
Boulder Creek Scout Reserv. 302 13 -
Mountain Elementary School 240 11 -
Kennolyn Camp 239 26 -
Rountree Facility(prev. Sheriff's Rehab) 235 21 -
Mountain Summit Mutual Water System 223 16 -
Ridge Mutual Water Company 213 11 -
Gizdich Home Ranch 213 6 -
Puresource Water, Inc 206 39 -
Rancho San Andreas 200 22 -
Roaring Camp Railroad Inc 193 35 -
Santa Cruz Waldorf School 190 18 -
Fern Grove Water Club 187 20 -
Big Redwood Park Water 182 47 -
Sunset Beach Mutual Water Co 182 7 -
La Madrona Athletic Club 172 6 -
Mount Madonna Center 170 18 -
Renaissance High School 166 21 -
Koinonia Conference Grounds 166 47 -
Bonny Doon School 160 12 -
Camp Chesebrough 155 18 -
Summit Mutual Water Company 152 51 -

Compare beyond California

Mid-flagged peers for Santa Cruz County

Cross-state counties nearest Santa Cruz County on flagged-system share (93.8%) and cumulative violation count (2,563). In-state neighbours stay on the compliance plate above.

Similar flagged-system rate

Nearest cross-state counties by % of SDWIS systems with at least one violation on record.

4 peers

Similar violation load

Nearest cross-state counties by cumulative SDWIS violation count (all systems in the county).

4 peers
Data sourced from EPA SDWIS and UCMR5 PFAS monitoring data. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainWater

Every figure on PlainWater is rendered directly from EPA SDWIS drinking-water data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on EPA SDWIS data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.