Water conservation: water meters: accuracy standards.

Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to establish design and construction standards and energy and water conservation design standards for new residential and new nonresidential buildings to reduce the wasteful, uneconomic, inefficient, or unnecessary consumption of energy, including energy associated with the use of water. Existing law requires the commission to establish minimum levels of operating efficiency to promote the use of energy and water efficient appliances, including landscape irrigation equipment. This bill would require the commission, on or before January 1, 2022, to adopt regulations setting standards for the accuracy of water meters, as described. The bill would prohibit any water meter manufactured on or after the effective date of those regulations from being sold or offered for sale in the state, or installed by a water purveyor, unless it is certified by the manufacturer to be in compliance with those standards. Notwithstanding these provisions, the bill would require the regulations to include an exception for purchase of a noncompliant water meter pursuant to a contract entered into before January 1, 2020, and the subsequent installation of that water meter. The bill would allow a water purveyor to maintain water meters that are installed as of the effective date of the regulations, or pursuant to that exception, until the end of their useful service, as determined by the water purveyor.