As a premier product certification provider, IAPMO R&T understands the importance of keeping our clients current on industry developments and new requirements that may affect their products’ marketability. On April 1, California Gov. Jerry Brown directed the first statewide mandatory water reduction in Executive Order B-29-15. This was due to the severity of California’s drought.
According to the Department of Water Resources, California is now in its fourth year of drought:
● 2012 was a period of continued drier-than-normal conditions.
● 2013 was the driest year in recorded history for many parts of California.
● 2014 was the third driest in the 119 years of official California water monitoring records.
● As of March 2015 the dry trend continues.
This executive order will save water, increase enforcement to prevent wasteful water use, streamline the state’s drought response, and invest in new technologies that will make California more drought resilient.
As a result, California’s Appliance Efficiency Regulations (California Code of Regulations, Title 20, Sections 1601-1608) were amended to set new water efficiency requirements on plumbing fixtures and fittings, which will take effect in California on Jan. 1, 2016. These new requirements will greatly affect our clients on their listed products, with details as following:
● Toilets and urinals, except those designed for prisons or mental health facilities. (These facilities have specially-designed toilets and urinals to address security and health issues.)
Toilets shall not consume more than 1.28 gallons per flush and shall have a waste extraction score of no fewer than 350 grams. Wall-hung urinals shall not consume more than 0.125 gallons per flush.
● Residential lavatory faucets shall not exceed 1.2 gallons per minute flow rate.
● Kitchen faucets shall not exceed 1.8 gallons per minute flow rate and may
have capability to increase to 2.2 gallons per minute momentarily for filling pots and pans.
● Public lavatory faucets shall not exceed 0.5 gallon per minute flow rate.
We understand that retailers, distributors, contractors, designers, as well as jurisdictions in California will be in need of an effective and efficient way to easily identify products that comply with the new requirements, especially with a relatively short time frame given to implement these new regulations. With that in mind, we immediately notified all of our clients of the new requirements via press release as soon as the news broke and developed a new program to help them bring their products into compliance with the new requirements in an efficient manner. This new program also allows our clients to add a compliance statement to the amended CCR requirements on their existing listing certificate, making it convenient for the public to identify which products are in compliance. Further, as a California Energy Commission (CEC)-approved third party certifier, we are able to assist our clients with the submittal of their certification data to CEC.
This new program is another example of our commitment to the plumbing industry, and it certainly fits within the IAPMO’s objective for public health, safety, and environmental awareness. With the continual increase of the world’s population and global climate change, water as a natural resource is becoming scarcer every day. Therefore, anything that we can do to help conserve water would be treasured for generations to come. To learn more about this new program, please contact us at 1-877-4UPCMARK (toll free) or via e-mail at info@iapmort.org
Jin Luo
Last modified: April 15, 2024