Sidebar: Water Policies: Encouraging Conservation
Reducing water consumption isn’t only a matter of implementing progressive policies, regulations, and incentives; it’s also a matter of eliminating regulations that discourage conservation. Many local ordinances make no distinction between graywater (from sinks, showers, and clothes washers) and blackwater (from toilets), requiring all wastewater to be discharged into a sewer system or septic tank. Other local plumbing codes prohibit waterless urinals or mandate water supply pipes to be larger diameter than needed, resulting in excessive waste while occupants wait for hot water to reach the tap.
The biggest offenders, from a water-waste standpoint, are municipal ordinances and homeowner-association rules that require front-yard turf. Some municipalities still enforce ordinances requiring turf on the narrow strip of land between a sidewalk and street, says water conservation expert Thomas Pape, and this turf is “almost impossible to irrigate without overspray and runoff.” Many homeowner associations require 90% turf in front yards, which are almost totally unused today. “The sad truth is,” according to Pape, “the advent of video games, air conditioning, 600 channels of TV, and Internet access has eliminated children playing on turf lawns. Expansive turf lawns are a vestige of the past.” The federal preemption on appliance standards makes it extremely difficult for states to adopt water-efficiency and energy-efficiency standards more stringent than federal standards. “Obtaining an exemption from DOE is a long and costly process, as California has learned,” says Pape.
