The California Department of Water Resources is implementing a long term, increasingly stringent set of urban water conservation measures. These impact both indoor and outdoor water use. The programs require retail water providers like Riverside Public Utilities and Western Municipal Water District to meet specific indoor and outdoor water use targets by specified dates. For the most part, the programs do not specify exactly how to meet the targets. This allows some flexibility to water providers that may have greater opportunity for additional conservation in one area of use than in others.
Lumped together, the program is known as the Urban Water Use Objective, or UWUO. The primary components of UWUO are the aggregate of indoor water use, the aggregate of outdoor residential water use, the aggregate of Commercial, Industrial and Institutional outdoor water through dedicated irrigation meters, and the aggregate of water loss.
For these purposes:
Institutional use includes governmental agencies, and HOA controlled landscaping.
Water loss includes leaks, "slow" meters that do not record all the water that passes through them, and water taken through unauthorized connections to a provider's distribution system.
Water from fire hydrants used in firefighting or to fill water trucks, street sweepers and the like is either metered or estimated and is not considered lost water for most providers.
Efficiency Levels and Implementation Timeline
Individual UWUO efficiency levels increase over time. Residential indoor use was set at 55 gallons per person per day through 2024, but decreases to 47 gallons per person per day this year and to 42 gallons per person per day in 2030. More efficient water appliances (toilets, washing machines, dishwashers, shower heads and sink faucets) will be required. Additionally, most water providers will need to install additional metering capability as most metering in place now does not separate indoor from outdoor use. Most meters cover the whole property, not just indoor or outdoor. More advanced meters can distinguish water use fairly accurately but may not be able to distinguish water flow to an indoor faucet from that to an outdoor faucet if the length of time water flows is the same, or if multiple devices are using water at the same time. All of this will cost customers money. Water providers can, and likely will, offer rebates to help reduce cost of new, more efficient appliances, but the cost remains, and will be recovered in taxes or customer rates.
Landscape Efficiency Factor
Outdoor water use is gauged on a complicated formula called Landscape Efficiency Factor, or LEF which considers landscaped area, precipitation, type of landscape and is somewhat influenced by climate zone. Most Inland Empire water providers believe that, unless modified, the later year LEF factors cannot support the sort of residential and commercial landscape we are used to, and that our trees may not be sustainable in many instances.
The residential Outdoor LEF is currently at .80 and will decrease to .63 in 2035 and to .55 in 2040. Western Water's residential customer base currently meets the .80 level.
The commercial LEF does not yet apply. It will be at .80 in 2028, .63 in 2035 and .45 in 2040.
Non-Functional Turf
Every water provider supports wise and non-wasteful use of water, even in wet years. There is a real question as to whether these new mandates for later years are achievable in hotter drier areas like the Inland Empire without a dramatic change to the landscapes we are accustomed to.
We will also see a change in areas with "non-functional turf." This is defined as turf that is not used for a purpose other than aesthetics and includes road medians, and turf areas not used for another purpose like sports. It includes government owned areas like street medians and privately owned areas like HOA maintained landscape areas. So far it does not include residential lawns. Most non-functional turf will not be allowed to be irrigated with potable water. This does not apply to residential lawns at this point.
Combined Water Budgets
It is important to recognize that all of these factors are combined to develop a water budget for each water provider. If your provider has a lot of pipe leaks or old, slow running meters, and that is fixed, the new goals may be met with little extra effort. If your provider has a good maintenance program with few leaks and has replaced older mechanical meters with new electronic meters you may need to take extra steps to help your provider comply and avoid fines from the state. Western Water has already replaced almost all its meters with new meters and has a very low leak rate. This means Western customers may need to take potentially drastic steps to help meet the new mandates or pay for the fines imposed on Western through rates.
A Personal Perspective
Is this fair or equitable? I don't think so. Why penalize the customers of a provider that has already taken major steps to conserve water? Maybe we should move the baseline measurement back a decade or so to when more forward looking providers began major conservation programs and focus on those that have lagged behind. And maybe we should pay more attention to geographic and climatic differences across the state.
A Riverside resident of 50+ years, Mike served on the City Council for 12 years, 11 years on the State Seismic Safety Commission, and is currently on the Western Municipal Water District Board.
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