New water loss standards to come online in 2023

Urban water providers in California will have new performance standards they will have to comply with beginning in 2023.

The State Water Resources Control Board recently adopted new performance standards for urban retail water suppliers by requiring suppliers to monitor and reduce leakage in their distribution systems.

Set to come into effect in April 2023, the new regulation will bring about more efficient water use 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.

Performance standards for water loss is just one piece of the conservation framework established by SB 606 and AB 1668 in 2018. That legislation directs the development of standards and objectives requiring water suppliers to use water more efficiently.

“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,” said E. Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the State Water Board.

Previously, the monitoring and mitigation of water loss has been voluntary.