The city's Department of Environmental Protection is launching a $23 million program to replace as many as 200,000 toilets in up to 10,000 buildings citywide. Officials expect the program to ultimately save about 10 million gallons of water each day and reduce city costs by $9 million a year.
On Friday, the city's Water Board, a five-person panel appointed by the mayor, is expected to authorize funding for the program when it adopts the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The board is slated to approve a 3.35% increase in water and sewer rates, the lowest increase in nine years.
The toilet replacement program is part of an effort by the city to reduce overall demand for water by 5% by 2020. Between 1994 and 1997, when the city offered a similar toilet replacement program, 1.3 million toilets were replaced.
"Conserving water is not only the right thing to do, but it can also save money, reduce the amount of energy we use and improve the quality of our air," said Emily Lloyd, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection.
The first phase of the program targets between 7,000 and 10,000 residential buildings that are among the 28,000 properties in the city's multifamily conservation program, which bills ratepayers based on a fixed charge rather than meter readings. These buildings are required to install high-efficiency toilets by June 2016 to remain in the program.
For eligible buildings, the city is offering a $125 voucher that can be redeemed from five vendors for the purchase of a toilet certified as high efficiency by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The cost of the toilets varies by model, but officials said several sell for $125 or less.
