Separate Specifications Planning for Flushing and Non-Water Models

2008-05-27

Urinal efficiency is about to get a boost from the EPA's WaterSense program.  There are currently an estimated 12 million urinals in the Unites States. WaterSense estimates that approximately 80 percent of these fixtures are older units with flush volumes exceeding the current federally allowed maximum flush volume of 1.0 gallons per flush (gpf), some by two or more gpf. Considerable progress has been made, however, to develop urinals that use significantly less water than the federal requirement.  To promote the use of more efficient urinals and help commercial, industrial, and institutional facilities make informed purchasing decisions to reduce their water use, WaterSense has announced its intention to develop specifications for water-efficient, high-performance urinals. One specification will address flushing urinals (urinals that use water to remove wastes) and the other will address non-water urinals (non-flushing urinals).

WaterSense has issued a Notification of Intent to Develop Draft Performance Specifications for High-Efficiency Urinals (NOI). The NOI describes WaterSense’s approach to developing these specifications, the water efficiency and performance criteria WaterSense intends to include, and the technical issues that still need to be more fully defined and resolved prior drafting WaterSense specifications for high-efficiency urinals.  To view the NOI, please visit, www.epa.gov/watersense/pp/urinals.htm.

WaterSense would like input to help define the water-efficiency and performance criteria that best reflect user satisfaction and to resolve the outstanding technical issues identified in the NOI. In addition, WaterSense would like feedback regarding the specification development approach.  Any comments or suggestions should be sent to watersense-urinals@erg.com.

If you have questions regarding the urinals NOI or the WaterSense program in general, please contact the WaterSense Helpline at (866) WTR-SENS (987-7367) or e-mail watersense@epa.gov.