Trump’s War on Water Conservation
Images: (left) American Standard low-flow toilet; (center) EPA’s consumer label for water efficient fixtures; (right) a waterless urinal recently disconnected from water supply
Donald Trump is throwing another toilet tantrum.
He’s insisting that the US Environmental Protection Agency weaken the water efficiency standard of its Water Sense label.
To claim that the elimination of water efficiency standards will “lower the cost of living” is a blatant falsehood.
The EPA had previously estimated that low-flush toilets enable American families to reduce their water use by 20-60% and save $110 per year on average and $2200 over the lifetime of a toilet (note that this web page has now been removed from EPA’s website).
The genesis of the Water Sense program was, interestingly, the National Energy Policy Act of 1992, passed under the administration of George HW Bush. The architects of this energy bill recognized that drinking water and wastewater plants are often the largest energy consumers within municipalities, typically accounting for 30–40% of total energy consumed. The Act thus set residential fixture and appliance standards that limit the volume of water used per flush or per minute for toilets, urinals, showerheads, and faucets. Most notably, it required that every toilet installed after 1994 use just 6 L (1.6 gallons) of water per flush, a 54% reduction from the pre-legislation norm of 13 L per flush (3.4 gallons). The associated reduction in energy resulting from use of low-flow plumbing fixtures has further reduced the cost of residential water bills.
US toilet manufacturers have thus been making low-flush toilets for more than 30 years.
The Water Sense label was created to push water conservation even further. It recognizes plumbing fixtures that are 20% more efficient than required under the energy act.
These federal initiatives have had a substantial influence on residential indoor water use in the US. The 1992 Act has been credited with saving an estimated seven billion gallons per day, equating to seven times the daily water use of New York City and 18% of total daily US public water-supply use. They are a major reason for the ‘decoupling’ of water use from population growth in the US; the graph below shows that as water-efficient plumbing fixtures began to become available in the 1980s, total water use in the US began to decrease for the first time. As cities began to encourage replacement of old water-guzzling toilets with new low-flush toilets by offering rebates on purchases of low-flush toilets, the decline in water use steepened further.
Why in the world would we want to take away the single-most important tool in the water conservation toolbox used by cities around the planet?
Source: US Geological Survey
Our manufacture of low-flush toilets and water-efficient dishwashers, washing machines, and other appliances is also important to our global trade economy. The US sold its low-flush toilets to 156 different countries last year. Similar to the sentiment of US farmers to “feed the world,” US manufacturers take pride in providing water-saving devices around the world. As Bill Darcy Jr., global president and CEO of the US National Kitchen and Bath Association has put it: “The commitment to water efficiency and hygiene is more crucial now than ever.” When Trump tried to weaken the efficiency standards in his first term, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials offered a bunch of good reasons for not rolling back the standards.
Trump has falsely complained that low-flush toilets don’t work properly. “People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times as opposed to once.” His comment reminded me of a conversation I had with the president of American Standard, a leading US manufacturer of low-flush toilets in the US. He boasted that “Our toilets can flush a one-pound russet potato.” I will spare you the visual imagery of the YouTuber that easily flushed 56 chicken nuggets in his low-flush toilet.
Which made me wonder, what is Trump trying to flush?
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times may have found an answer. In her book “
It’s all making water sense now.
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