Outdoor Items Excluded From Water-Use Credits

No more trading in your birdbath for a new bathroom in your Monterey Peninsula home.

It used to be that such outdoor items could be used to calculate water credits. But the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District’s board voted this week not to consider outside plumbing devices or utility sinks when calculating such credits on the parched Peninsula.

District staff members reported a sudden surge in new birdbaths, fish ponds, fountains and other water-using lawn ornaments belonging to people who offer to remove the fixtures to get water credits to use inside the house.

Stephanie Pintar, the district’s permits manager, estimated that 5% to 10% of water credit applications each month have included such questionable fixtures.