San Francisco, CA – WaterSmart Software, the leading behavioral water efficiency solution provider that helps utilities and their customers save water, today recognized the California State Water Resources Control Board for adopting more stringent water regulations that restrict outdoor irrigation, require notification of residential leaks, and improve transparency in compliance and enforcement reporting. Water suppliers will be expected to comply by May 1st.
“California is facing an increasingly dire situation in regards to our limited water resources,” said Robin Gilthorpe, CEO of WaterSmart Software. “The need for greater education on water consumption to drive efficiency has never been more apparent. WaterSmart stands ready to support water utilities in these new outdoor watering restrictions, leak notification and compliance reporting requirements under the amended regulations.”
Water suppliers that deploy WaterSmart’s platform will be better able to address the drought and the Board’s more stringent regulations. WaterSmart Software customer engagement and data analytics solutions help address the new emergency regulations in the following ways:
Irrigating turf or ornamental landscapes during and 48 hours following measurable precipitation (rain) will be prohibited. WaterSmart can identify outdoor irrigators who are likely to be out of compliance and send automatic notifications and warnings.
WaterSmart is able to immediately support targeted, personalized customer communications to promote solutions such as smart, weather-based irrigation controllers and rain shutoff devices to improve utility compliance and reduce potential for outdoor water violations.
Water agencies will be required to notify customers when they are aware of leaks that are within the customer’s control. The ability to identify residential leaks, in both AMI (smart meter) and non-AMI environments, is a critical need to aid in this emerging crisis. WaterSmart technology can assist water suppliers throughout the state to rapidly identify and notify customers of potential water losses.
Water suppliers will be required to expand reporting to the Board. In addition to residential GPCD, suppliers will also need to report on the number of days per week or duration watering restriction, and to describe compliance and enforcement actions, such as the number of violations issued to customers. WaterSmart can support suppliers with automatic compliance report generation.
Leveraging a proprietary household occupancy model, WaterSmart can assist water suppliers in reporting requirement compliance for Residential GPCD.
Local agencies can fine property owners up to $500 a day for failure to implement conservation requirements and the State Water Board can issue cease and desist orders against water agencies that don’t impose mandatory conservation measures upon their retail customers. Water agencies that violate cease and desist orders are subject to civil liability of up to $10,000 a day.
About WaterSmart Software
WaterSmart Software helps water utilities educate and engage their customers to save water and money. WaterSmart offers a turnkey, cloud-based engagement, analytics, and behavioral water efficiency solution that helps 38 utilities save water – up to 5 percent – in as little as twelve months. WaterSmart manages data from over 10% of California’s water meters and has delivered over 4,600 leak notifications in the past 6 months. Let us help your agency change the way the world uses water. For details visit: www.vertexone.net.
