Petaluma OKs voluntary water plan

Petaluma council members on Monday dropped a controversial plan to require water-efficiency inspections before homes are sold, opting for a voluntary program that encourages compliance by issuing special city certificates to sellers.

The voluntary inspections are one feature of a 19-point program that is expected to save 495 million gallons a year by 2025, ensuring that the city has enough water for a projected population of 72,000 people.

A unanimous council vote came as residents on the north end of Petaluma cleaned up from a weekend flood.

But, perhaps fitting for a city bedeviled by shortages and surpluses of water, Petaluma's drinking water comes primarily from a county aqueduct while floodwaters are from overflowing creeks and the Petaluma River.

The city, which uses about 4 billion gallons of water a year, began working on a conservation program following a warning in 2006 that demand could outstrip supply by the end of this decade.

In addition to voluntary inspections, the program adopted Monday includes free low-flow plumbing attachments, rebates for high-efficiency washing machines, landscape renovation restrictions and rebates for updated irrigation systems.

It requires new home developers to install high-efficiency toilets, sprinklers with rain-sensor shut-offs and offer efficient washers.

Margaret Orr, engineering manager for the Petaluma Water Resources and Conservation Department, said the plan will cost the city $591,000 in 2008 and less in each subsequent year.

It will cost developers about $2.4 million, she said.

Mandatory water-efficiency inspections were dropped after real estate agents complained last fall that the point-of-sale provision would be costly and time-consuming.

City officials and agents hammered out a compromise which will allow sellers who replace outdated toilets and fix leaky plumbing to obtain city documentation that can be used to market a home.

Kathy Hayes, the government affairs director for the North Bay Association of Realtors, said the change was a major improvement.

"It's terrific," Hayes said. "We end up working voluntarily with the city."

The city has had a de facto building moratorium in place for nearly two years, in part because of concerns about water supply. Work is continuing on an updated land use plan, which is to include elements of the conservation ordinance adopted Monday.

City officials said the conservation ordinance will ensure that the city has enough water to grow from about 56,000 people today to a projected population of 72,000 in the next 17 years, the lifespan of the new general plan.

Coupled with an ambitious water recycling project, city officials said the conservation ordinance will lead to the most efficient use of supplies from the Sonoma County Water Agency and spare the city's well water.

"This is the most cost-effective water source to Petaluma," Orr said.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 762-7297 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.