The water shortage in California has reached crisis status. This month, Gov. Jerry Brown took the unprecedented step of ordering mandatory water restrictions to achieve a 25 percent reduction in urban water usages throughout the state. With California’s hottest and driest months ahead, we all need to do our part to ensure that we have enough water to drink, fight fires, and irrigate the crops that bring in billions of dollars to the state. Unfortunately, while water demand rises, supply continues to shrink.

Therefore, municipal governments throughout the state are stepping up to help residents find new, innovative, and cost-effective ways to reduce water consumption in non-disruptive ways. Industry, agriculture, and population place significant strains on the water reserves, but the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) has created a strategy of helpful rebates for technological solutions that will help balance the needs of everyone.

Orange County domestic water-saving rebates are split into three primary areas: indoor, outdoor, and water-saving programs. Some of these include:

• Indoor rebates focus on two of the biggest users of water: the bathroom and laundry. Water-saving technology has made appliances much more efficient, often requiring less energy to use as well as less water. To help reduce unnecessary consumption, the MWDOC is offering substantial rebates on water-efficient toilets and washing machines ($100 and $85 or more, respectively) to encourage consumers to replace their old appliances with new ones.
• Outdoor rebates endeavor to reduce water consumption and encourage more efficient use throughout your garden. These range from smart irrigation timers, soil moisture sensors, and rain barrels to turf removal and drip-irrigation systems, with price incentives of $2 up to $380, depending on your strategy.
• Perhaps the most ambitious strategy to save water is the Water Smart Home certification program for water saving. This program includes a free indoor and outdoor water survey to help you gauge what you need to do to reduce your water consumption, as well as provide you with information on rebates available to you to economize water usage.

Keeping California blue is a job that no one can do alone. It will take a concerted effort on all of our parts to ensure that our state has the water we need to remain golden. Take advantage of these tips, incentives, and rebates, and our water savings will certainly add up to more than a drop in the bucket.

Information on rebates and water-conservation programs