The WaterSense Current: Summer 2024

Summer 2024 - Issue LX

The WaterSense Current is a quarterly update dedicated to news and events related to WaterSense. Sign up to receive The WaterSense Current and get WaterSense news delivered right to your Inbox. 

In This Issue:

• WaterSense Makes It Easy to Save Water and Energy
• Help Your Irrigation System Work Smarter Not Harder This July
• Add Water Savings to Your Maintenance To-Do List
• Vallecitos Water District Spreads Savings Across Southern California
• Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership Connects With the Community

WaterSense Makes It Easy to Save Water and Energy

With climate change affecting our weather and well-being, saving water and energy is more important than ever. WaterSense makes it easy for consumers and businesses to save water and energy with labeled products, programs, and homes. WaterSense labeled plumbing fixtures and irrigation products have helped save 8.7 trillion gallons of water since 2006, with 1.2 trillion gallons saved in 2023 alone! WaterSense and its more than 2,200 partners have also helped consumers save $207 billion on water and energy bills.

By reducing the amount of energy needed to pump, treat, and heat water, WaterSense labeled products have helped save 997 billion kilowatt hours of energy since 2006. Those energy savings eliminated nearly 379 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions—the equivalent of planting 6.3 billion trees.

Whether you are looking to transform your bathroom or upgrade your landscape irrigation system, it is easy to find high-performing, water-efficient products by looking for the WaterSense label. Over 45,900 WaterSense labeled product models are available to help you save water inside and out!

Consumers and businesses turn to WaterSense partners across the country for education, incentives, and events that help them conserve water. Learn more about WaterSense partners and how they helped make saving water, energy, and money on utility bills easy by reading the 2023 Accomplishments Report.

Help Your Irrigation System Work Smarter Not Harder This July

Beat the heat—and water waste—during Smart Irrigation Month this July. Conduct a Sprinkler Spruce-Up to ensure your irrigation system stays in tip-top shape all summer. A simple check could save up to 15,000 gallons of water all year long! Take the guesswork out of watering with a WaterSense labeled irrigation controller that schedules irrigation based on local weather conditions or soil moisture levels.

To conduct a sprinkler spruce-up, check for missing or broken sprinkler heads that could be wasting water and connect unsecured hoses or pipe connections. Make sure sprinklers are directed only towards landscapes and pointed away from sidewalks and driveways to prevent water runoff.

You can also reduce the workload of your irrigation system by being picky about what plants to place in your landscape. Native, drought-tolerant plants require little supplemental irrigation beyond normal rainfall, meaning your sprinkler system can have some time off. Once you’ve selected your plant varieties, group plants in hydrozones based on watering needs to simplify irrigation and avoid over- or under-watering. Add mulch in flower beds and around the bases of trees and shrubs to reduce evaporation and increase the time between watering.

And if you want to maximize water efficiency during Smart Irrigation Month, contact an irrigation professional certified by a WaterSense labeled program. A certified pro can help design, audit, or maintain a water-efficient irrigation system using best practices and WaterSense labeled products for your lawn needs and lifestyle. For more smart watering and landscaping tips, visit WaterSense’s website: www.epa.gov/watersense/outdoors.

Add Water Savings to Your Maintenance To-Do List

Keeping up with maintenance in and around your home is an important part of making sure your fixtures and systems perform well, save water, and keep your utility costs down. To help homeowners make maintenance less of a chore, WaterSense has a new Home Maintenance web page, which features detailed information about how to upkeep fixtures, appliances, and systems that use water within a home.

WaterSense also created a new Maintenance Checklist for a Water-Efficient Home with daily, monthly, and annual maintenance tips to help to ensure continued water efficiency and performance.

One of the easiest actions to cross of your list is regularly checking plumbing fixtures and connections for leaks. Check out step-by-step instructions and “bath hack” videos on the WaterSense Fix a Leak Week web page to stop those leaks in their tracks. The checklist has tips for maintaining fixtures like toilets, faucets, and showerheads around your home, including inspecting showerheads and faucets for scale buildup or replacing toilet flappers every five years. Part of home maintenance also includes checking water service pressure; water-using fixtures will operate best if your home’s incoming water pressure is between 45 and 60 pounds per square inch (psi).

If you need more guidance on any of the steps on the checklist, the WaterSense home maintenance web page includes plenty of links to other WaterSense resources that can help you find and fix leaks, create a water-smart landscape, and more. And if you find that any of your plumbing fixtures need to be replaced, you can use the WaterSense Product Search Tool to find the WaterSense labeled products that are right for your home. Or, if you’re in the market for a new home, consider one that has earned the WaterSense label. A WaterSense labeled home is verified to be free of leaks and includes WaterSense labeled products, water-smart landscapes, and other water-efficient features—reducing the time and effort you need to spend on maintenance!

Vallecitos Water District Spreads Savings Across Southern California

The Vallecitos Water District in California earned its first WaterSense Partner of the Year Award thanks to its outreach and education efforts in 2022. To promote outdoor water efficiency in times of more frequent and severe droughts, the District held a WaterSmart Landscape contest to highlight yards with native, drought-tolerant plants and efficient irrigation. Participating customers received a certificate to a local nursery, and the top three winners were featured in a video to inspire other residents to upgrade their yards.

The District created other educational videos each month with a water-saving theme, including Love Your Bathroom, Shower Better, World Toilet Day, and Water-Smart Landscapes. The videos were highlighted on a new Vallecitos web page that also promoted WaterSense resources. To help others promote WaterSense campaigns, the District allowed WaterSense to share the videos with other partners to use on their own social media channels.

The District further promoted water conservation by participating in events like street fairs, where they distributed WaterSense materials and native plants. The District also incentivized customers to take the WaterSense “I’m for Water Pledge” with $25 gift cards and were provided with rebate information on WaterSense labeled products.

Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership Connects With the Community

The Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership in California has won its second Partner of the Year Award, and seventh overall award for promoting WaterSense and water conservation. In 2022, the Partnership held pop-up events at farmers markets, nurseries, summer concerts, and other community events and partnered with five local hardware stores to distribute water-saving information and WaterSense labeled showerheads and faucet aerators.

To further encourage residents to save water during California’s prolonged drought in 2022, the Partnership created a slogan, “The Drought is STILL Here,” and created a video highlighting how to properly care for trees during droughts as part of its annual Eco-Friendly Garden Tour. And to help make water more affordable, the Partnership rebated over 300 WaterSense labeled smart irrigation controllers in 2022!

Sticking to its focus on outreach and education, the Partnership participated in several WaterSense campaigns, including Fix a Leak Week, Sprinkler Spruce-Up, Smart Irrigation Month, and When in Drought with newspaper placements, social media, web banners, and WaterSense materials. The Partnership ensured that its messaging reached a wide audience by translating many of its educational materials into Spanish.