Go Low Flow, Be Flush With Cash ; City Plan Would Offer Rebates As It Moves Toward Requiring Replacement of Water-Wasting Toilets

It looks like the reign of the high-flow toilet is headed down the drain.

A City Council proposal would require Albuquerque homes and businesses, before they could be sold, to replace their old toilets and other fixtures with low-flow models.

Increased water-bill rebates -- $150 for each low-flow toilet -- would help people make the change. But the amount of the rebate would decrease yearly until 2010, when low-flow toilets would become mandatory.

Business leaders are working with Councilor Martin Heinrich on the details.

"All this is already required in new construction," Heinrich said in an interview this week. "What we're trying to do is give people some financial incentive to change these things out." The idea actually came from business leaders, he said, and the proposal is similar to a law in San Diego.

"We felt that it was very necessary and important that the older commercial and industrial buildings be brought up to code in terms of low-flow toilets, faucets and shower heads," said Lynne Andersen, president of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties' New Mexico chapter.

Details are still being worked out, but here is what the proposal is expected to include:

The city-county water utility's low-flow toilet rebate would be increased to $150 per toilet in 2007. It would fall to $125 in 2008 and $100 in 2009. The program might be phased out entirely after that. A joint water board in charge of the utility has endorsed this idea.

The current program offers residential customers $125 for the first toilet change-out, $75 for the second and $50 for subsequent toilets.

Low-water use plumbing fixtures such as toilets and shower heads would have to be installed when the property's ownership is transferred. The utility offers $8 rebates for shower heads. It also gives them out free to people who get a residential water audit, which is also free.

Negotiators are still working on who would be responsible for the change-out and when it would take effect. They are targeting Jan. 1, 2010, for the effective date.

There would be exceptions in cases of financial hardship. There might also be limits on how many toilets would be eligible for rebates each year.

Albuquerque's water utility has offered rebates for 60,000 toilets since 1995. A licensed plumber has to sign a form filed by the customer verifying that the water level in the new toilet is set correctly and that a high-flow toilet was replaced.

Good low-flow toilets cost about $150, said Katherine Yuhas, conservation officer for the city-county utility. They work much better than the lowflow models promoted in the mid-1990s, she said.

Old toilets use about 5 gallons per flush, and new ones use about 1.6 gallons.

Each low-flow toilet can save about 8,687 gallons a year, Yuhas said. About 30 percent of a home's indoor water use can occur through the toilet.

"Toilets are a quick, easy way to save water," she said.

Commercial customers can get rebates of $90 for regular low-flow toilets under the current program. Higher toilet rebates are available to customers who purchase high-efficiency toilets that use only 1 gallon per flush.

A version of Heinrich's proposal is being considered by the council's Finance and Government Operations Committee. If approved by the city, he hopes Bernalillo County will consider approving a similar rule.

The joint city-county water board has already endorsed the idea of creating such a law.

Cash for saving water

Customers of the city-county water utility can find out how to apply for toilet rebates at www.abcwua.org/waterconservation. Click on the link for "low-flow toilets."

(c) 2006 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.