A bill that recently passed in the California state legislature and was signed by Governor Schwarzenegger, AB 715, will require that high-efficiency toilets and urinals be installed in all new construction in the state—including houses, schools, office buildings, and other structures—starting Jan. 1, 2014.
High-efficiency toilets (HETs) are those that use 1.28 gallons of water per flush or less, consuming about 20 percent less water than the industry standard of 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf). According to the EPA, toilets account for approximately 30 percent of indoor water use in homes.
Just one part of California’s efforts to conserve water, the new mandate is estimated to save more than 8 billion gallons of water by the 10th year of implementation. The average Californian uses between 70 and 80 gallons of water per day indoors. California’s projected population growth of 500,000 new residents each year, combined with current water shortages and projected future shortages, make water-conservation mandates necessary.
“Water conservation is the quickest, cheapest way to manage our water supply and address the impact of population growth and global warming,” said California Assemblyman John Laird, who proposed the legislation.
The new mandate also will conserve energy, reducing California’s greenhouse gas emissions, because water transport and treatment is the single largest consumer of electricity in the state. According to the California Energy Commission, water supply and treatment, end-use, and waste-water treatment consume 19 percent of the state’s electricity. Reducing the volume of water required in each new building by installing HETs and high-efficiency urinals—and making them more widely available for retrofits?will reduce California’s energy usage as well.
Finding a company that makes HETs will hardly pose a difficulty; 24 manufacturers currently offer a total of 111 HET models, some with dual-flush mechanisms. The mandate also will require manufacturers to ramp up their offerings of HET and urinal models in California’s market to 50 percent by 2010 and to increase the percentage each year until 2014, when 100 percent of models offered for sale in the state must be high-efficiency models.
Eventually, the requirements of Laird’s AB 715 may be adopted into the California Building Standards Code.
