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comment California Bill Would Mandate High-Efficiency Toilets
A water conservation bill currently moving through the California Legislature would set the maximum water consumption for toilets at 1.3 gallons per flush (gpf; 4.9 lpf). The legislation, Assembly Bill 2496, was authored by John Laird (D–Santa Cruz) and passed the State Assembly on May 15, 2006. If approved by the Senate and signed into law, the measure will phase in the new toilet and urinal standards starting January 1, 2008, with the last changes becoming effective January 1, 2011.
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The bill includes the following provisions:
• As of January 1, 2008, tank-type, single-flush toilets (gravity flush and pressure-assist) installed in new California buildings would be limited to 1.3 gpf (4.9 lpf); dual-flush toilets would be limited to 1.6 gpf (6.0 lpf) for solids and 1.1 gpf (4.2 lpf) for liquids. The same restrictions would take effect one year later for flushometer-type toilets.
• As of January 1, 2009, all wash-down urinals sold or installed in California (for new construction and existing buildings) would be limited to 0.5 gpf (1.9 lpf).
• Two years after the toilet regulations described above take effect (i.e., in 2010 for tank-type toilets and 2011 for flushometer toilets), they would be extended to all toilets sold in California—thus applying to both new construction and existing building installations.
The definition of a high-efficiency toilet in AB 2496 is similar to that of the Uniform North American Requirements (UNAR) for Toilet Fixtures, but it establishes the threshold as 1.3 gpm rather than a 20 percent savings, as defined by UNAR, which results in a limit of 1.28 gpf (4.85 lpf). “This legislation merely rounded up that figure to 1.3 for ease of communication and implementation,” according to water conservation expert John Koeller, of Koeller and Company in Yorba Linda, California. “Those of us involved in developing UNAR have no quarrel with that.”
More significantly, AB 2496’s definition of a high-efficiency toilet does not address performance standards for toilets. “We would have liked to have seen a performance threshold included,” says Koeller, “such as the very well-received MaP testing protocol.”
According to a press release from Laird’s office, the legislation has broad support from water conservation groups, plumbers, environmentalists, and even toilet manufacturers. American Standard; Mansfield Plumbing Products, LLC; Vitra USA, Inc.; Caroma USA, Inc.; and WDI International, Inc., have all written to the State Assembly in support of the legislation. But some manufacturers do not support the legislation. Water conservation pioneer Toto USA, Inc., for example, calls the legislation faulty. “To lower flush volume to 1.3 gpf for toilets without setting a flush performance standard is ill advised,” says Lenora Campos, Toto’s public relations manager.
Currently, 86 toilet models from 16 manufacturers comply with the proposed requirements.
By the tenth year after taking effect, the measure is expected to save over 8 billion gallons or 25,000 acre-feet of water per year, according to Laird’s press release—exceeding the amount of bottled water that Americans consumed in 2005.
Koeller thinks the California Senate will follow the State Assembly in passing the legislation, but he doesn’t know where Governor Schwarzenegger stands on the measure. “Even if it does not pass in this session,” he said, “it will definitely return in the next session, and the next after that for as long as water continues to be a serious issue.”
Read more on UNAR in Environmental Building News.
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