Currents

An Energy Newsletter for Local Governments

City of Ventura Adopts Ahwahnee Water Principles

The City Council of Ventura formally endorsed the Ahwahnee Water Principles in their draft form as distributed at the Yosemite conference last month and adopted them as policy guidelines for all future planning in the City of Ventura.

The Council authorized an ordinance changing its city plumbing code to require that all multi-unit buildings (both commercial and residential) constructed after July 1, 2004 must have individual water metering for each unit in the building. Ventura may be the first city in California to require individual unit sub-metering in multi-unit construction. Research shows that such sub-metering costs between $200 and $1500 per unit, depending upon construction and design, but saves between 18% and 39% in potable water utilization, and costs are recovered by water savings on average within 3 years. At current multi-unit construction rates and water utilization patterns, this action will save Ventura between 18,000,000 and 40,000,000 gallons of water annually.

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