Legal Water Flow in San Diego

Due to the recent drought in California, the law now restricts appliances and devices that use water in your household. Is your San Diego house compliant? Here’s a look at the new regulations as of July 2018.

New Laws

New California laws state that by the year 2022, each person in California may use only 55 gallons of water per day. By the year 2030, it will drop even further to 50 gallons per day. To understand what this means, look at some daily water usage statistics:

• An average shower uses 10 to 20 gallons of water.
• A load of laundry in a newer washing machine can use between 15 and 30 gallons of water.
• Each flush of the toilet uses between 3.5 and 7 gallons of water per flush.
• Each person in the house should drink at least half a gallon of water per day.
• An Energy Star-certified dishwasher can use 3 gallons or more of water for one load of dishes.
• Hand-washing dishes can use up to 27 gallons of water just for washing a sink full of dishes.

Adding up all the activities in your daily life shows exactly where water usage goes every day. These are also only some of the basic daily needs. Watering the lawn, brushing your teeth, and cooking are also activities requiring water use.

Current GPM Requirements

California law states that appliances and faucets dispensing water must perform to certain standards. Here are the current specs for any building projects today:

• Toilet flow must be less than 1.28 gallons per flush (GPF)
• Bathroom faucets must have less than 1.2 gallons per minute (GPM)
• Public lavatory faucets must have less than 0.5 GPM
• Kitchen faucets must have less than 1.8 GPM
• Shower heads must have less than 1.8 GPM
• Urinals must have less than 0.125 GPF

Keeping your businesses and home residences up to date with the laws ensures you will not incur any fines for being out of compliance. For help installing low-flow faucets, shower heads, or Energy Star-rated appliances, call a licensed plumber to ensure you are saving water. A plumber can also look around your plumbing system for leaks and other sources of wasted water.