For the second time in nine months, the list of cutting-edge,
water-saving devices eligible
for rebates in Southern California
has been expanded as Metropolitan Water District’s Board
of Directors today continued
to refine the agency’s core
conservation program.
Metropolitan’s board added rotating sprinkler nozzles for pop-up spray
heads that save up to 6,600 gallons over five years and retrofitted steam sterilizers
that conserve more than 400,000 gallons per year to its inventory of cost-effective
devices eligible for district incentives.
“These rebates and incentives play a major role in our conservation efforts,
which are designed to reduce the demands for imported water in Southern California,” said
Metropolitan board Chairman Wes Bannister.
“Today, we’re creating the equivalent of a new river in Southern
California through our investments in conservation, recycling and other resource
management projects and programs,” Bannister said.
Metropolitan General Manager Jeff Kightlinger noted the district’s commitment
to providing effective water-saving programs and services, having invested more
than $234 million in fixture retrofits and related conservation activities over
the past 10 years. In 2005 alone, Metropolitan issued about 300,000 rebates
for devices that are now saving nearly 3 billion gallons of water a year in Southern
California.
“These water-saving efforts, along with the investments we’ve made
in partnership with our member public agencies in recycling and groundwater recovery,
have played huge roles in driving down per capita water use in Southern California
by up to 35 gallons per person each day since 1990,” Kightlinger said.
The refinements are the latest
to Metropolitan’s five-year
conservation strategic plan
developed in coordination with
its 26 member public agencies. In
its first round of program
enhancements initiated last
December, Metropolitan’s
board increased incentives
to local agencies for new high-efficiency
programs and devices.
Metropolitan currently offers
rebate packages for a variety
of devices, including ultra-low-flush
and high-efficiency toilets,
high-efficiency clothes washers, “smart” irrigation
controllers, waterbrooms, and
cooling tower conductivity
controllers. Customized
incentive programs also are
available to homeowners’ associations
for large landscapes and for
industries that use water in
processing or manufacturing.
The pop-up irrigation spray
heads with rotating nozzles
that were added to the incentive
list by Metropolitan’s
board today use multi-trajectory
streams to apply water more
evenly than traditional nozzles
with fixed conical spray patterns. Field
tests have demonstrated that,
in addition to saving water,
the new nozzles can help reduce
street run-off and related
pollution.
Metropolitan’s new incentive
to retrofit steam sterilizers
is intended to cover the entire
cost of the water-saving upgrade. Sterilizers—commonly
used in hospitals and research
laboratories to clean and disinfect
surgical equipment, tools and
supplies—continuously
use potable water to flush
equipment whether or not the
unit is in use.
Retrofitted units will mix
cool potable water with the
heated discharged condensate
only when the sterilizer is
in use, saving up to 1.3 acre-feet
of water per year. An
acre-foot is nearly 326,000
gallons, about the amount used
by two typical Southland families
in and around the home in a
year.
As part of its action, Metropolitan’s
board also added rebates for
high-efficiency and waterless
urinals in new commercial construction. In
addition, the board provided
incentives for surveys of commercial
landscapes with dedicated landscape
water meters.
Detailed information on Metropolitan’s
conservation and rebate programs
can be found on the district’s
Web site and
under the Rebates section of www.bewaterwise.com.