Follow these steps.

• See if your water contains chlorine or chloramine. You can find this information in the water quality report for your water system, but you may want to have your water independently tested. You must take steps to remove the chlorine or chloramine from your water before using it in the dialysis process, because these substances are harmful if they enter directly into the bloodstream.
• If your water contains chlorine: Chlorine may be eliminated from water by using a filtration system. To determine whether your system is already able to remove chlorine or to obtain assistance with upgrading your system, contact your physician, dialysis equipment service company, or the Department of Health Services Licensing & Certification Unit.
• If your water contains chloramine: Your dialysis system needs to be able to handle up to 5 mg/liter of chloramine (higher than the maximum concentration allowed by law). Chloramine may be eliminated from water by using a granular-activated carbon-filtration system specifically designed to remove chloramine. To determine whether your system is already able to remove chloramine or to obtain assistance with upgrading your system, contact your physician, dialysis equipment service company, or the Department of Health Services Licensing & Certification Unit.

If you have questions or need additional information on how to prepare your water for use in dialysis treatment, contact your dialysis facility, physician, or one of these resources:

• Department of Health Services Licensing & Certification Unit, (650) 301-9771
• Southern California Renal Disease Council (for southern California dialysis patients)

The water you receive from Cal Water is safe for human consumption. However, your water may contain chlorine or chloramine, which can harm animals that live in water, such as fish, reptiles, amphibians, and shellfish. Unlike land-dwelling creatures, these animals don’t have a digestive process that neutralizes chloramine and chlorine before it reaches their bloodstream, so putting them in untreated tap water may be harmful—even fatal.

Follow these steps.

• See if your water contains chlorine or chloramine. You can find this information in the water quality report for your water system.
• If your water contains chlorine: Chlorine evaporates quickly, so the easiest method of removing it from water is to put it in an open container and let it sit still for a couple of days. Alternately, chlorine may be eliminated from water by boiling it or adding salts.
• If your water contains chloramine: There are two methods for eliminating chloramine from water. You can either purchase a granular-activated carbon-filtration system specifically designed to remove chloramine, or you can use a conditioner or additive containing a dechloraminating chemical for both ammonia and chlorine.

Products for removing chloramine and chlorine, as well as kits to test your water for chloramine, are available at many pet and aquarium supply stores. These stores may also be a good resource for information on care for your pets.

• Turn off the faucet when you brush your teeth can save 70 gallons or more per month.
• Take shorter showers. Reducing your shower time by just one minute can save as much as 75 gallons per month.
• Fix a leaky faucet with even a little drip—five drops per minute—can save more than 200 gallons of water per year.
• Replace your toilet or washing machine with a high-efficiency model. Rebates may be available.
• Install water-saving faucet aerators, high-efficiency shower heads, shutoff hose nozzles, and leak detection dye tablets. We have conservation kits available at no charge to our customers.

Customers who participated in our rebates and programs between 2016 and 2020 will help California save more than 9.2 billion gallons over the lifetimes of their new devices. That’s more than 148 billion cups!

Water pressure is a measure of the strength with which your water comes out of your pipes. It is distinct from water flow, which is a measure of how much water comes out of a pipe over time. For example, a hose and a showerhead may have the same water flow, but the water coming out of the showerhead will be at higher pressure because it is being forced through small holes.

If water comes out of your faucets without much force, your home may have low water pressure. Low water pressure can be caused by a variety of circumstances. If you are experiencing low water pressure at home, consider the following:

• How long have you had low pressure? If it just started, it may be because of a temporary situation (such as a water main repair) that will resolve itself when the water system returns to normal. If it is a long-term problem or happens frequently, the cause may be something closer to your home.
• Is your water pressure low or is it just lower than water pressure in other homes in your area? Sometimes, homes can have different water pressures because of their locations. For example, a home on flat land may have higher pressure than a home on a hill. So long as the water pressure in the home on the hill is sufficient for daily activities, this is not an indication of a problem, even though another home may have higher pressure.
• Are other homes in your area experiencing the same issue? Low pressure in multiple homes along the same water main may indicate a problem with the system that needs to be resolved.
• Is your house valve turned all the way on? Correcting the situation may be as simple as opening your water valve all the way.
• Do you have low pressure in your whole home or just in certain areas? Localized low pressure may be caused by competing demands for water, such as a sink that experiences low pressure when a nearby shower is running. Or higher-use activities, such as watering a yard, for example, could cause low pressure in other areas of the property.
• Is the low pressure only in one sink or showerhead? This may be because its filter has become clogged, and a simple cleaning may correct the problem.
• Do you have galvanized or copper plumbing? Galvanized plumbing can develop clogs that restrict the flow of water.

If you have low pressure throughout your home and are not able to resolve it with the above tips, please contact us. It may be time to review the size of your water meter or investigate other possible issues with your water service.

It’s always been wise to conserve water in your home and garden. But in California today, conservation is more than just a good idea—it’s essential. We need to stretch our water supplies to insure that there is enough water to serve everyone who needs it.

One of the best places to make significant reductions in water use is in your garden. People who live in urban areas use about half of their water outdoors. In the summer, garden water use climbs even higher as the weather gets hotter and drier.

Fortunately, you can save water in your garden without sacrificing the quality of your landscaping. By taking advantage of efficient irrigation techniques and using ornamental plants and ground covers that are suitable to long, dry summers, you can enjoy a beautiful landscape that requires significantly less water and maintenance than a less carefully designed one.

Planting Hints

• Whenever possible, plant only low-water and drought-resistant plants. By using native plants—plants that are used to our climate—you may be able to reduce your outdoor water use significantly.
• Limit the amount of area devoted to your lawn. Lawns need great quantities of water, particularly in the summer.
• Wait until fall or winter to install a new garden. New plantings require more water than established growth.
• Consider planting low-water or drought-resistant plants.
• Keep low-water plants away from “thirsty” plants. Mediterranean-zone plants can suffer if they are over watered as you care for their neighbors.
• Place thirsty plants at the bottom of slopes, where they will benefit from water runoff.
• Keep shade plants in the shade. This will help prevent them from drying out.
• Include mulch around shrubs and plants to help reduce evaporation, limit weed growth, moderate soil temperature, and prevent erosion.
• Replace mulch around shrubs and plants at least once per year and remove weeds as needed.

Managing Your Lawn

• Limit the amount of area devoted to your lawn. Lawns need great quantities of water, particularly in the summer.
• A good way to check if your lawn needs watering is to just step on the grass. If it springs right back up, you don’t need to turn on the sprinklers. When it’s time to water, do it at dawn or dusk to reduce evaporation.

Watering Tips

• Mature trees require less water than newly planted ones.
• Check your sprinkler system regularly. A sprinkler system can waste water if sprinkler heads are broken, automatic timers are not adjusted for rain, or hidden leaks are not detected.
• Switch to a drip irrigation system for your yard.

More Outdoor Savings

• A garden hose can use 10 gallons of water per minute. Use a broom instead of a hose to clean patios, walkways, and driveways. When you do need the hose, use a nozzle to increase pressure and decrease water usage.
• Have a dirty car? Use a bucket of water instead of a hose to wash your car. Even better, take your car to a car wash that recycles its water.

Check the Rebates page for conservation rebates and programs that can help you maximize your outdoor water savings.

• Use a pool cover to reduce water loss from evaporation.
• Repair pool leaks. A one-inch-per-day leak in a 15 foot by 30 foot pool can waste about 102,000 gallons per year.
• Manually clean your filter.
• Maintain proper chemical levels and adequate circulation time to avoid needing to either drain your pool or use excess water to correct issues.
• Consider turning off the tile-spray device on an automatic pool cleaner. This device can create splashing and overspray that ends up out of the pool or evaporates before it even hits the tile.
• Reevaluate the frequency of backwashing.

Source: California Urban Water Conservation Council

Although apartments generally use less water than houses, in some ways apartment dwellers can do more to conserve water than homeowners. Think of it this way, if everyone in your building does a little something to save water, that small water savings is multiplied by the number of units. So if everyone saves just two gallons of water per day, your building may be saving 10, 50, or 100 gallons per day, depending on the number of units.

Some apartment dwellers pay their own water bills, and some do not. But whether or not you have an individual water bill, it benefits you to conserve water. Conservation helps keep water costs down, and water costs impact the price of necessities such as food (because farms use so much water)—and rent.

• Even if you already have a low-flow showerhead, every minute you shorten your shower can save up to 75 gallons per month. And remember, there’s power in numbers—if every apartment in a 15-unit building cut just one minute from their daily shower, that would be a savings of 1,125 gallons every month!
• Got a leaky faucet? Report leaks promptly to your building manager. A little drip may not seem like much, but a faucet that drips just five times per minute may be wasting more than 260 gallons per year.
• Do you leave the faucet running when you brush your teeth? Turn it off to save 70 gallons of water per month or more. You can also ask your building manager to install water-saving faucet aerators (available from Cal Water at no cost) to reduce your faucet water use even more.
• See a leaky sprinkler? An apartment building is a community, and what affects the building affects the tenants. If you see a leak—from a broken sprinkler, washing machine, or pipe, for example—report it immediately to your building manager.
• See room for improvement? Your building manager should also be notified if you see other types of water waste. For example, it’s best to water lawns when the sun is down to minimize evaporation, so you should inform your manager if an automated watering system’s timer seems to be off. You should also bring to your manager’s attention old, inefficient washing machines, gardeners who use water to clean walkways instead of sweeping them, and other sources of water waste.