Friday November 4, 2022
State Water Board —
The State Water Resources Control Board has adopted new
performance standards for urban retail water suppliers—the utilities that provide water
to people in California cities—that it estimates will save about 88,000 acre-feet of water
per year, or enough to supply over 260,000 households, by requiring suppliers to
monitor and reduce leakage in their distribution systems.
“As climate change induces hotter and drier conditions, we must conserve water as
much 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 water
is often out of sight. The new performance standards will not only reduce that water loss
by over a third, they will also cut energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions by
lowering 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 efficient
water use in California by providing retail suppliers with a volumetric standard that sets
cost-effective levels of achievable water loss, given their water systems’ characteristics
and budgets. Suppliers will be required to start meeting individual volumetric loss
standards over a three-year period beginning on Jan. 1, 2028.