Santa Cruz Sentinel

Governor signs Larid's toilet bill

October 14, 2007

By Genevieve Bookwalter
Sentinel staff writer

SANTA CRUZ - Californians will soon save water with every flush, after Gov. Schwarzenegger on Friday signed Assemblyman John Laird's bill requiring builders throughout to install more efficient toilets and urinals on all new construction.

The governor's autograph confirmed that the bill was no longer a pipe dream for Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who had seen a similar proposal vetoed last year.

This year, Laird said, he sought the backing of the national toilet industry to ensure sure the bill wasn't flushed away again.

"The city of Los Angeles has grown by 1 million people in the last 25 years, but uses exactly the same amount of water" as it did previously, Laird said. With this bill, Laird said he was "looking at giving a tool to cities across the state to do similar things"

The ripple effect could be felt outside California as well. The toilet industry plans on promoting California's new rule around the country as an easy way for others to save water, Laird said.

Under the new law, beginning in 2010, the legislation will require half of all toilets sold in California to use high-efficiency toilet technology. By 2014, all toilets sold must meet the new conservation measures.

The average Californian uses an estimated 70 to 80 gallons of water indoors per day, according to statistics provided by Laird's office. Toilets account for about one-third of all residential indoor use. The new requirements would save more than 8 billion gallons of water by the 10th year after the bill takes effect. That's more than the total amount of bottled water consumed by Americans in all of 2005.