Policy and Legislation
- Laws mandating reductions in use
- Drought ordinances/water use restrictions
- Water-wise landscaping and efficient irrigation requirements
- Building Codes requiring installation of high-efficiency fixtures
- Policies requiring building permit applicants to achieve efficiency and conservation points via green building rating systems (LEED or BuildItGreen)
- Incentives and subsidies (not discussed in this section) for installing efficient fixtures are also widely available from many cities and water agencies.
It is becoming very common for local authorities to require that any new construction and major renovation include low-flow showerheads (less than 2.0 gallons per minute), high-efficiency toilets (dual-flush or less than 1.28 gallons per flush) and urinals, and/or water-wise landscaping and irrigation. Many local building departments now ask building permit applicants to bring in a completed LEED or BuildItGreen checklist, showing how they will save water and energy. Water efficient fixtures are worth lots of points in these rating systems. Check your local government and utility websites for their water conservation/efficiency or green building regulations or incentives.
- More details about BuildItGreen
- More details about LEED
- More details about water-wise and Bay-Friendly landscaping
Efficiency: Major State Legislation
SB 7 Statewide Water Conservation (was AB 49)
SB 7 is one of five bills in the 2009 Water Package that creates a framework for future planning and actions by urban and agricultural water suppliers to reduce California’s water use. It is referred to as the “20x2020 Bill”, because it mandates a 20% state-wide reduction in per capita urban water use per day by the end of 2020. “Urban” in the water context usually means water used in residential, commercial, institutional and industrial facilities. “Urban” excludes agricultural use. This bill also requires the development of agricultural water management plans and requires urban water agencies to reduce statewide per capita water consumption 20% by 2020. The Department of Water Resources will be implementing this law.
AB 32 - California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
The landmark climate bill that mandates a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, also indirectly pressures us to reduce water use. Water “conveyance, storage, treatment, distribution, wastewater collection, treatment, and discharge sectors of the water use cycle,....consumes about 19% of the state’s electricity, 30% of its natural gas, and 88 billion gallons of diesel fuel every year.” (Martha Krebs, Ph.D., California Energy Commission) For more info see http://www.energy.ca.gov/2007publications/CEC-999-2007-008/CEC-999-2007-008.PDF.
- Read Wholly H2o’s water/energy nexus. See [Internal Link to Resources: Water/Energy Nexus]
AB 1881 (Laird) - The Water Conservation in Landscaping Act of 2006
AB 1881 (Laird) The Water Conservation in Landscaping Act of 2006 "requires cities, counties, and charter cities and charter counties, to adopt landscape water conservation ordinances by January 1, 2010. In California, about half of the urban water used is for landscape irrigation. Pursuant to this law, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) has prepared a Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance for use by local agencies. The Model Ordinance became effective on September 10, 2009. The local agencies may adopt the state Model Ordinance, or craft an ordinance to fit local conditions. In any case, the adopted ordinance must be as effective as the Model Ordinance in regard to water conservation." http://www.water.ca.gov/wateruseefficiency/landscapeordinance/
California Green Building Standards Code (CALGREEN; Title 24, Part 11)
The California Green Building Standards Code is being lauded as the first green building code to be enacted in any US state. Its provisions are currently voluntary for most “occupancies”, but will become mandatory for all types of buildings beginning January 1, 2011. The California Building Standards Commission is the oversight agency for this code which addresses energy and water conservation, as well as construction waste, and materials for healthier indoor air. Some of the more prominent water-related requirements are:
- 20% mandatory reduction in indoor water use, with voluntary goal standards for 30, 35 and 40 percent reductions;
- Separate water meters for nonresidential buildings’ indoor and outdoor water use, with a requirement for moisture-sensing irrigation systems for larger landscape projects.
In addition to these requirements, two tiers of higher criteria are set out that are optional for localized adoption. Some judge these standards to potentially conflict with or be ineffectively low in comparison to independent rating systems such as LEED or GreenPoint Rated. Others fear that they may undermine the regulations already adopted by certain California cities, despite the fact that cities can enact more stringent requirements.
CALGREEN was developed by the state and International Code Commission and will be administered and enforced directly by local building departments.
Overall, it is undoubtedly a step in the right direction to have one statewide baseline for water- and energy-efficient construction practices. Interestingly, the International Code Commission, one of several bodies that drafts model codes, is using the California Green Building Code as the basis for an ICC green code to be published in 2010.
