California is the only state that does not recognize the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard for point-of-use submeters. These devices can be installed in apartments with vertical riser pipes to bill individual users for water consumption. Approximately 60 percent of apartment units in the state fit this configuration.

With submetering, a third party provides residents with a bill that accurately measures their water consumption, so individual costs can be compared to individual benefits, and consumption altered accordingly. Large families or people who delight in long showers, or wash clothes or dishes frequently, pay more. Single people or those who conserve water religiously pay less. It’s simple, fair, and saves water.

Without submeters, apartment residents’ water costs are included in their rent. The costs are determined either by dividing equally or by “allocation,” an estimate of use based on square footage and number of occupants. Neither method accurately correlates cost with use. Conservation-minded residents pay the same as those who consume water freely, eliminating the incentive for millions of Californians to reduce their water consumption.

As a result, in California one acre-foot of water, capable of meeting the annual indoor residential needs of 25 people, currently satisfies only 15. The residential sector is the state’s most wasteful urban sector in terms of water use, according to the Oakland-based Pacific Institute. We can do better.

The National Apartment Association and the National Multi Housing Council report that submetered properties use 18-39 percent less water than properties where water costs are built into rent. Another study, conducted in San Antonio, found that submetering decreases consumption by 31 percent.

Conservationists would love these savings, and residents would love the extra cash in their wallet. Less water use also means lower electricity bills. Communities benefit as well from reduced wastewater costs, and the environment benefits from less wastewater discharge. What’s stopping all these good things from happening? California has not approved the new technology.

Officials at the Division of Measurement Standards (DMS), the state agency responsible for approving commercial water meters, cite accuracy concerns. Currently, water meters in California must conform to the accuracy standard of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Devices that test outside this accuracy standard are not approved.

But this standard was designed to measure traditional utility-type meters, not point-of-use submeters, which operate under different water-flow conditions. As a result of California’s stricter standard, submeters cannot pass the test.

DMS says that affected parties should petition to relax the NIST standard. But that involves a Byzantine, multi-year review process, involving Canadian testing labs and such unknown bodies as the Specifications and Tolerance Committee of the National Conference on Weights and Measures. Fortunately, there is another option.

California’s Secretary of Food and Agriculture, Schwarzenegger appointee A. G. Kawamura, has authority to accept the ANSI standard, which would permit installation of point-of-use submeters. A bill in the state legislature, AB 2655, reconfirms this authority. This standard works for 49 states and it would work for California.

Water that is not individually metered is wasted. Submetering is an effective and cost-efficient solution. As California enters its high-water-demand season, Secretary Kawamura should adopt immediately the ANSI standard to conserve California’s water.

A shorter version of this article was published as “Water Meters are Key to Conservation by Homeowners. What About Apartment Dwellers?” Sacramento Bee, June 11, 2004.

About PRI
For more than two decades, the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI) has championed individual liberty through free markets. PRI is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting the principles of limited government, individual freedom, and personal responsibility.