Feds catching up with us on saving water — finally

By Phoebe Sweet

Friday, July 25, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Five years ago, the Southern Nevada Water Authority quit pushing the federal government to create standards for water-efficient homes — and came up with its own instead.

Since then, more than 7,000 Las Vegas Valley homes with low-flow toilets, water-stingy washing machines and desert landscaping have been certified “Water Smart.”

This year the feds are finally catching up, crafting a set of regulations to create a national stamp of approval, similar to the Energy Star label, for new homes that use about 20 percent less water than the average home. The program is expected to be rolled out early next year.

Better late than never, the Water Authority says.

In many Southwestern cities that don’t already have strict conservation guidelines for new homes — cities that, like Las Vegas, rely on the Colorado River for water — a national “WaterSense” rating could really improve water savings, according to Doug Bennett, the authority’s conservation manager.

Federal laws enacted in the early ’90s require new plumbing fixtures and water-using appliances to be more efficient, so new homes across the United States tend to use less water than their predecessors — inside, at least. Those gains are erased at many new homes by landscaping. Lush yards are the reason many new homes are using as much as 20 percent more water than older homes, Bennett said.

In a study of nine large American cities, most of them in the Southwest, only new homes in Las Vegas and Phoenix, which also has a water conservation program, used less water than older homes, Bennett said.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense standards are aimed at helping more cities catch up to us.

The program already is empowering consumers to build water saving into their shopping choices, by labeling efficient appliances and fixtures with the WaterSense seal of approval, something Carl Pope, executive director of the national Sierra Club, said is “an important first step.”

“Consumers should be able to get good (products), and you have to become a research librarian to find out what ... you’re buying” without the labels, Pope said.

But he also noted: “it’s a very modest first step.”

With climate change exacerbating drought on the Colorado River and threatening the water supply of millions in the Southwest, including 2 million Las Vegans, it will take more systemic changes to avert disaster, Pope said.

“I do not see much leadership,” he added.

Although the Water Authority has been vilified by conservationists and rural farmers for a plan to pump billions of gallons of water a year from eastern Nevada to Las Vegas, it has been universally recognized for its forward-thinking conservation initiatives, including its turf buyback and Water Smart homes programs.

Still, the valley can — and many say must — do even better. The average person living in a single-family home served by the Las Vegas Valley Water District uses 165 gallons of water per day. Nationally, the average is closer to 70 gallons per person daily.

The Water Authority helped shape the EPA’s new WaterSense regulations — in part to help the EPA learn from five years of experience — so the features of homes certified under the EPA’s WaterSense program will look a lot like those in a Water Smart home.

Another incentive to line up EPA’s specs for WaterSense homes with the Water Authority’s own standards was that Las Vegas builders that signed on to the local program could easily participate in the federal one, too.

Bennett and EPA officials said one of the most important parts of designing their efficiency regulations was making sure the builders and buyers would get onboard with programs that require more efficient appliances, plumbing fixtures and landscaping than required by any local or national code alone.

Virginia Lee, one of the EPA’s team leaders for the WaterSense program, said the shower heads, toilets and other efficient features also had to work just as well as less-efficient counterparts on the market.

“Doing water conservation for an agency since 1995, I had seen agencies build model homes with Jetsons-type water features. And 10 years later there was only one,” Bennett said. The market just wasn’t ready for those high-end, futuristic homes.

“Instead of having one of these wonder homes that we could take people through on tours, we have 7,000 of these homes that Southern Nevadans actually live in,” Bennett said.

Walter Cuculic, director of strategic marketing for Pulte Homes, which will build about 1,500 houses in the valley this year, said his company thinks of the Water Smart designation as another amenity — like marble countertops or bamboo floors — it can offer in a soft housing market. The latest three developments his company completed in the valley were Water Smart, Cuculic said.

He thinks every new home should come with water and energy ratings on the front door.

Lee said national builders are already onboard with WaterSense and next week, as part of a pilot program, the agency expects to release a list of builders constructing homes based on the draft regulations.

In fact, she said builders and water agencies had come to the EPA over the past few years saying water conservation deserved to be taken as seriously as energy conservation. She said a national program would create higher visibility and raise awareness among consumers.

The EPA’s draft rules mandate how many gallons of water toilets can use per flush, how quickly water flows out of taps, how much of a lot can be covered by grass or pools. The proposed WaterSense program, like the Water Authority’s, deducts the surface area of pools from the total allowed for turf.

Lee said the agency has extended the public comment period on the regulations through Sept. 4 and expects to release final specifications by February

One of the more contentious aspects deals with landscaping and the amount of turf that will be allowed. In wetter climates large lawns may account for only a small fraction of water use. The limits could be customized for various regions, Bennett said.

Bennett also said that if the program is to succeed, the EPA needs to make it easy for builders to get their homes certified by reputable inspectors. In the Las Vegas Valley, Water Authority employees inspect Water Smart homes.

The inspections are also critical because the homes must live up to the certification.

“When you have a brand like WaterSense or Energy Star or Water Smart, you have to make sure you have the consumers’ confidence in that brand,” Bennett said. “You can’t afford any oversights.”