Older plumbing fixtures would have to be replaced with new low-flow models whenever homes are remodeled or expanded, and all new developments would be required to install low-flow fixtures under an ordinance to be introduced today by the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors.

The ordinance, which was developed in cooperation with the Nipomo Community Services District, will require all new developments to have toilets that use no more than 1.28 gallons per flush, and shower heads that limit flow to 2.5 gallons per minute.

It also requires developers to retrofit older homes with new low-flow fixtures or pay an in-lieu fee that will create a fund, administered by NCSD, to help residents install low-flow devices.

The in-lieu fee would be $750 per new toilet, which would allow five old toilets to be retrofitted with 1.28-gallons-per-flush toilets.

The new requirements would apply to the Nipomo Water Conservation Area, a roughly triangular, 22,000-acre area extending west to the Pacific Ocean from Highway 101 between the Santa Maria River and Los Berros Road (see related story for boundary description).

Money collected within NCSD boundaries will be spent within the district, while money collected outside the boundaries will be spent outside the boundaries.

NCSD General Manager Bruce Buel said district officials hope the county will make some minor adjustments in the proposed ordinance.

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“We've made some additional suggestions (for changes), and we hope they will talk to us further before they adopt the ordinance,” Buel said. “We're in support of the concept. We're down to the fine tuning.”

A county staff report on the proposed ordinance also says all water purveyors within the Nipomo Mesa Water Conservation Area should adopt “conservation rate structures” as an additional way to reduce water use.

Conservation rate structures usually contain three to four tiers where the cost per unit of water jumps up at certain levels of use. That usually results in less water use because consumers don't want to pay the higher costs.

At present, NCSD has a two-tiered structure, while Golden State Water Co. and Rural Mutual Water Co. - which both provide water within the conservation area - have only a single rate tier.

Woodlands Mutual Water Co., which serves that development, is the only purveyor within the conservation area that has a three-tier rate structure.

The NCSD board of directors has generally resisted instituting more than two tiers, although the members have been split in their decisions on the rate structure.

If the ordinance is introduced as planned today, a public hearing on the amendments will be held Oct. 21. If adopted at that meeting, the requirements would become effective Nov. 20.

September 23, 2008