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Chapter 9: Reliability Through Diversification
water-use evaluations to identify specific
measures for i
mproving water-use efficiency.
They also offered vouchers to help pay for
low-flow faucets, showerheads and toilets,
along with water-efficient appliances. It was a
strategic approach – water-smart appliances
and plumbing retrofits create permanent water
savings that don’t require people to alter their
habits – and an approach that turned out to
be very popular. Since 1990, more than
1.2 million conservation devices such as high-
efficiency clothes washers and water-saving
showerheads have been installed in San
Diego County.
In Sacramento,
the Water
Authority played
a leadership role
in the state’s
efforts to pro-
mote water
conservation by
sponsoring leg-
islation that set
new efficiency
standards for
toilets (1.6 gal-
lons per flush) and for metering water use at
all homes statewide. The Water Authority also
sponsored AB 1561 in 2002 that set water
conservation standards for
high-efficiency clothes wash-
ers sold in California and
helped boost
market accept-
ance of the technology.
In addition, the Water Authority
championed efforts to make
water-efficient landscapes the
norm by sponsoring legislation
requiring up-to-date water-
efficient landscape ordinances
for every city in California. And
in 2009, the Water Authority
support-
ed the
passage
of SBX7-7, which estab-
lished a statewide goal
of a 20 percent reduc-
tion in per capita water
use by 2020.
The Water Authority also
took its conservation
message to the streets.
In 2006, it convened the
region’s first
Water
Conservation Summit at
the University of San Diego. “The idea that we
can keep building pipe and (that)
water will be
at the end of that pipe is not true any longer,”
Per capita water use around the San Diego region is on track to meet or beat
state-mandated efficiency goals
Water Use Trends & Targets
(Potable Demand: Excludes Recycling)
The region’s first
Water Conservation Summit was in 2006