ROSEVILLE, Calif. — We're 23 days into the new year, which means we're 23 days into having new laws that went into effect New Year's Day. One new set of rule changed causing confusion — new water efficiency laws.
This week, the City of Roseville shared a post on Facebook claiming inaccurate information about two new water laws has been circulating.
The new laws, Senate Bill 606 and Assembly Bill 1668, both signed in 2018 by Governor Jerry Brown, aimed to promote water efficiency by setting some target guidelines for water usage.
Those laws set an indoor water use standard per person of 55 gallons per day until 2025. Five years after, the target goes down to 50 gallons.
Shortly after the laws were signed, ABC10 reported that a conservative blog swirled inaccurate reports about the laws. The blog said the laws would make it illegal to shower and do laundry on the same day.
The blog added up the average water use for doing laundry and eight-minute showers, coming up with 57 gallons. Those numbers were actually based on water efficiency standards for older shower heads and washing machines, not the most recent averages.
The city of Roseville is one of the cities the laws are targeted for, and officials have been working to debunk the myths they say are still being circulated.
In particular, the disinformation that customers can be charged $1,000 for going over the targeted usage limit.
The law states that water agencies, not the individual customers they serve, could be fined up to $1,000 dollars a day if they don’t meet the water use targets.
That number could even go up during drought periods.
Regardless, Roseville city offiicals said its water customers are already conservative and don’t foresee having to pay that $1,000 a day fine.
"We have a very robust water efficiency program that encourages water use efficiency," said Maurice Chaney with the City of Roseville said. "The whole idea that there’s never enough to waste."
Follow the conversation on Facebook with Zach Fuentes.
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