A drinking-water line in every new building

Why a third line

Most buildings treat all water the same: the water that flushes toilets is the same water we drink. Families then haul bottled water, or buy filters that may not remove what matters. A dedicated drinking-water line separates the few gallons a day people actually drink from everything else, so that small amount can be treated to a higher standard.

Cheapest while the walls are open. A small purified line added during construction costs far less than a retrofit later. It can feed the kitchen tap, the refrigerator and ice maker, and a drinking spigot near each bathroom.

Ways to supply it: building-level zero-waste reverse osmosis (RO); a sealed refillable bottle receiver, like a water cooler, feeding a small pump; or a reservoir filled by a delivery tanker. Bottled-water companies become a “secondary utility” for safe drinking water instead of a competitor.

Code proposal and track record

 

We are preparing a proposed amendment to California Title 24 (the state building code: the Plumbing Code and CALGreen) that would require a dedicated drinking-water line in new homes, plus a model bill with clear specifications and protections against whole-house filtration sales scams. The goal is to use technology that already exists, not to sell one product.

Track record: we ran a dedicated drinking-water line through a Michael’s distribution center, thousands of feet of pipe supplying drinking water across the facility. A working home installation feeds the refrigerator dispenser and ice maker, a coffee machine and spigots by each bathroom from a 55-gallon reservoir with a delivery pump.

Read the studies behind this proposal · Talk to us about a project