Lisa Cuellar, CalWEP Program Director
Published Oct. 2, 2023
The State Water Board ‘s latest proposed regulations (August 18, 2023) introduced some new terms including: temporary provisions, climate-ready trees, qualifying landscapes, disclosable buildings and climate ready landscapes. So what do these terms represent and how are they integrated into the new proposed regs? Read on for clarifications provided by CalWEP. . .
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Term |
Definition |
Applicable Standards |
Regulation Section |
Notes |
|
Temporary Provisions |
An additional volume of water that an urban retail water supplier may request to add to its urban water use objective for a limited time for a specified beneficial use that will require less water over time.
|
Indoor Residential, Outdoor Residential, CII-DIM |
Section 965 (ccc) |
Suppliers must submit a request to the Board by Oct. 1st for a given reporting year and receive approval in order to utilize a temporary provision. |
|
Climate Ready Trees |
A tree that is well-adapted to face both present and future climatic challenges such as heat, drought, extreme weather events, and pests within the supplier’s service area. Each newly planted climate-ready tree is assumed to occupy 1.0 square foot. |
Outdoor Residential, CII-DIM |
Section 968 (h) (2A,B)
|
A temporary provision for the volume of water associated with planting climate-ready trees applies for three reporting periods starting with the reporting period in which the trees were planted. |
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Qualifying Landscapes |
Those that require temporary irrigation and are associated with low-impact development, ecological restoration, and mined-land reclamation projects.
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Outdoor Residential, CII-DIM |
Section 968 (h) (3A) |
A temporary provision for the volume of water associated with establishing qualifying landscapes applies for three reporting periods starting with the reporting period in which irrigation begins. |
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Disclosable Buildings |
A covered building of any property type defined by ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager that has more than 50,000 square feet of gross floor area, and has (1) no active residential utility accounts, or (2) 17 or more active residential utility accounts of each energy type serving the building.
|
CII-Performance Measure |
Section 965 (t); See also: CCR, Title 20, Section 1681 |
Suppliers must identify all disclosable buildings by Jan. 1, 2025. They must also progressively provide monthly water use data and meter serial numbers to building owners or owner’s agent through 2030. See Section 974 (a) for more details. |
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Climate Ready Landscapes |
Are designed and maintained to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and weather more extreme conditions; they save water, reduce waste, nurture soil, sequester carbon, conserve energy, reduce urban heat, protect air and water quality, and create habitat for native plants and pollinators.
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Outdoor Residential, CII-DIM |
Section 965 (j) |
Starting in 2035 and through 2040, suppliers that meet certain criteria can utilize a Landscape Efficiency Factor (LEF) of 0.63 and 0.80 for calculating outdoor residential and CII-DIM water budgets respectively. One of these criteria is to invest in “climate-ready landscapes”. See Section 966 (i) for more details.
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