Best management practices for urban water use consist of those urban water conservation measures that generally meet one of two criteria:  (1) Constitutes an established and generally accepted practice among water purveyors that provides for the more efficient use of existing water supplies or contributes towards the conservation of water; or (2) Practices which provide sufficient data to clearly indicate their value, are technically and economically reasonable, are environmentally and socially acceptable, are reasonably capable of being implemented by water purveyors and users, and for which significant conservation or conservation-related benefits can be achieved.  Some of the most significant of these include:

*Interior and exterior water audits and incentive programs for single family residential multi-family residential, commercial, industrial, and government and institutional users;

*New and retrofit plumbing;

*Distribution system water audits, leak detection, and repair;

*Metering with commodity rates for all new connections and retrofit of existing connections;

*Large landscape water audits and incentives;

*Landscape water conservation requirements for new and existing commercial, industrial, institutional, government, and multi-family residential development projects;

*Public information and awareness programs;

*Water education programs for teachers and schools;

*Commercial and industrial water conservation programs;

*New commercial and industrial water use review;

*Conservation pricing—increasing block rates;

*Landscape water conservation for new and existing single family homes;

*Water waste prohibition, enforcement, and fines;

*Water conservation coordinator;

*Financial incentives;

*Ultra-low flush toilet and showerhead replacement programs.

In addition to these proven Best Management Practices, there are a number of other actions that may be taken to further encourage water conservation and more efficiently utilize water resources.  These constitute Potential Best Management Practices and may include the following:

*Rate structures and other incentives and disincentives to discourage frivolous water use and encourage water conservation;

*Efficiency standards for water using appliances and irrigation devices;

*Replacement of existing water using appliances (except toilets and showerheads whose replacements are incorporated as Best Management Practices) and irrigation devices;

*Retrofit of existing car washes;

*Graywater use;

*Distribution system pressure regulation;

*Water supplier billing records broken down by customer class (e.g., residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, etc.);

*Commercial billing records broken down by industry classification (Standard Industrial Classification [SIC] Codes);

*Swimming pool and spa conservation including covers to reduce evaporation;

*Restrictions or prohibitions on devices that use evaporation to cool exterior spaces (e.g., mist sprayers);

*Use of point-of-use hot water heaters, recirculating hot water systems, and hot water pipe insulation;

*Efficiency standards for new industrial and commercial processes.

Source:  California Water Plan Update, Volume 1, Bulletin 160–93, October 1994, Department of Water Resources, The Resources Agency, State of California, Sacramento, California.