CII Case Study: Santa Monica Medical Facility Retrofit

Health care institutions are consistently within the top 10 water users in any given community. Santa Monica’s health care facilities are no different consuming over 20% of the City’s commercial water demand. The Santa Monica Medical Facility Retrofit program was designed as a direct install program to precisely target Hospitals, MedicalOfficeBuildings, and Assisted Living Homes In an effort to reach the City’s goal of reducing water use 20% by 2010.

This turn-key program provided medical facilities with a free water assessment, water-efficient products (toilets, urinals, pre-rinse spray valves, faucet aerators, showerheads, cooling tower conductivity controllers, x-ray film processing recycling systems) and installation all at no cost to the customer.

A total of eighteen medical facilities (a combination of hospitals, doctor’s offices and assisted living homes) participated, thirteen of which were retrofitted between April 2004 and April 2006.

Actual water savings fell short of projections due to three main contributing factors:

  • Many of the facilities had previously installed water-efficient fixtures without financial assistance from the City.
  • Two hospitals began building new facilities with state-of-the-art equipment and had plans to demolish the old buildings within a few years. They chose not to upgrade the old fixtures in the older buildings.
  • Difficulty obtaining approval for retrofits from senior management.
  • There was considerable water waste at the Assisted Living Homes due to behavior not the plumbing fixtures. Many of the residents would forget to turn off the faucets letting the water run for hours. Garments and bedding needed frequent washing.

At the completion of the Program projection was revised with actual savings of 89 acre-feet (AF). Even though water savings were lower than projected, the Program was successful on many levels. It allowed the City to build relationships with these customers and to provide them with pertinent information regarding various City programs and policies. It also provided the facilities with a detailed list of all the water-consuming equipment in their buildings and suggestions for implementation of additional water-saving improvements outside the scope of this project. It provided the City with valuable data indicating that most facilities were sustainable and had already retrofitted without financial assistance. The total cost to implement this project was $56,525.

The City of Santa Monica is a retail water agency providing water to 17,000 connections which includes 87,000 residents and 17,000 businesses. For more information about this project, please contact:Kim O’Cain, City of Santa Monica, (310) 458-8459, ,