IAPMO Advances Development of 2023 WE•Stand

The International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials completed its Technical Committee Meetings toward the development of the 2023 edition of the Water Efficiency and Sanitation Standard (WE•Stand), previous editions of which are American National Standards.

During the June 22-23 meetings held at IAPMO’s World Headquarters West in Ontario, California, the WE•Stand Technical Committee acted on 143 public proposals. Topics included: onsite wastewater treatment systems for direct potable water reuse; onsite gray water treatment systems; gray water ready plumbing; the water demand calculator; reverse osmosis water treatment systems; water efficiency rating systems and methodologies; urine diversion system design and treatment methods; sustainable landscape design and installation; plant and irrigation system limitations; plant grouping via hydrozones; irrigation control systems; irrigation zone performance criteria; stormwater management and rainwater retention; water metering applications; leak detection and control; maximum hot water system ratios; commercial prerinse spray valves; and steam sterilizers.

The committee requested the Water Efficient Landscaping Task Group, Direct Potable Water Reuse Task Group and Premise Water Supply System Design Task Group reconvene to review their respective proposals and generate public comments for the technical committee’s consideration. The Direct Potable Water Reuse Task Group is to be expanded to include additional expertise for evaluation and consensus on risk assessment and safety parameters to review respective proposals and generate public comments for the technical committee’s consideration. A call for additional expertise on risk assessment will be published this year.

The technical committee requested that a new task group be formed to review the classifications of water types, which are color-based, and generate public comments for the technical committee’s consideration. Existing terminology for water types is to be reviewed and updated to correlate with determined science-based titles. A call for task group members for the “Water Types Task Group” will be published this year.