Friday November 4, 2022
State Water Board —
The State Water Resources Control Board has adopted newperformance standards for urban retail water suppliers—the utilities that provide waterto people in California cities—that it estimates will save about 88,000 acre-feet of waterper year, or enough to supply over 260,000 households, by requiring suppliers tomonitor and reduce leakage in their distribution systems.
“As climate change induces hotter and drier conditions, we must conserve water asmuch as possible and become more efficient on all fronts,” said E. Joaquin Esquivel,chair of the State Water Board. “Water loss from distribution systems for drinking wateris often out of sight. The new performance standards will not only reduce that water lossby over a third, they will also cut energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions bylowering the amount of water needing to be treated and distributed.”
Set to come into effect in April 2023, the new regulation will bring about more efficientwater use in California by providing retail suppliers with a volumetric standard that setscost-effective levels of achievable water loss, given their water systems’ characteristicsand budgets. Suppliers will be required to start meeting individual volumetric lossstandards over a three-year period beginning on Jan. 1, 2028.