SACRAMENTO -- In your lifetime, you likely will flush the toilet 140,000 times, according to government estimates.

A new state law seeks to make each flush a little more efficient, saving California about 8 billion gallons of water annually.

The legislation did not get much attention when it was signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger last month, but its implications will trickle down to new home builders and buyers in the next several years.

By 2014, all toilets installed in most new buildings and homes will have to use no more than 1.28 gallons of water per flush, down from the current 1.6-gallon standard. The standard for urinals will change from 1 gallon to a half-gallon. The regulations will phase in beginning in 2010, when half of all toilets sold in the state must be high-efficiency models.

"The last generation of toilet efficiency has produced immense savings across the state, and this is the next generation," said Assembly Member John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who authored the bill.

The law comes as California deals with an ongoing drought that state officials say could lead to restrictions on water deliveries to cities and farms.

Scientists predict the situation could worsen as global warming reduces mountain snowmelt that the state relies on to fill reservoirs.

The toilet savings will not be enormous; 8 billion gallons is less than one-sixth of the annual water use in Fresno alone. Laird said the bill is part of a larger conservation push that he hopes to follow up on next year with more legislation.

California's toilet standards were last updated in 1992. The 1.6-gallon limit soon became the national standard.

At first, those new toilets lacked power, prompting complaints from consumers.

Manufacturers went back to the drawing board. And now most everyone agrees that 1.6- gallon toilets -- as well as the 1.28-gallon "high-efficiency toilets" -- are just as good as older toilets.

The newest toilets send water to the bowl at faster speeds, allowing for a forceful flush with less water.

Wathen-Castanos, one of Fresno's largest home builders, installs high-efficiency toilets in all its new homes. Consumers have never complained and none have asked for new toilets, said Laura Mather, the home builder's director of sales and marketing.

"There's just more education going on about green building and energy efficiency," she said.

Consumers aren't likely to pay more for a high-efficiency toilet, because prices are based on style, rather than flushing action, according to toilet maker American Standard.

The company's "FloWise" high-efficiency toilet lists for $359. As proof of the toilet's power, American Standard features a video on its Web site of the toilet easily flushing down golf balls, wads of paper towels and other items.

Laird's legislation faced minimal industry opposition.

The state plumbers association -- which fought previous attempts to tighten toilet standards -- supports the new flush limit and plans to spread the word about high-efficiency models.

"We've just done a complete 180 in where we were a year and a half ago," said Stephen Lehtonen, executive vice president of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors of California.

Lehtonen credits his conversion with a recent trip to rain-starved Australia. The country's plumbers association runs a "GreenPlumbers" training program aimed at promoting environmentally friendly plumbing.

Upon his return, Lehtonen helped launch a similar program in California, which aims to train some 15,000 plumbers in the next four years, he said.

"It's time that plumbers got involved in being conscious of [the] environment," he said.

Homeowners who install high-efficiency toilets are not likely to see a significant drop in their water bills. But if enough residents install them, it could free capacity at municipal wastewater treatment plants. That could stave off costly expansions that eventually would lead to rate increases, said Lon Martin, who oversees the city of Fresno's water system.

Many homes still are using 3- and 5-gallon toilets, Martin said.

The city last year began giving a $75 rebate to residents who installed high-efficiency toilets. About 600 toilets were replaced, saving the city about 5 million gallons of water a year, Martin said.

The reporter can be reached at eschultz@fresnobee.com or(916) 326-5541.