The Dedham-Westwood Water District last week joined about a dozen Massachusetts towns participating in the federal Environmental Protection Agency's effort to promote water-efficient appliances.
The town, under the EPA program, will encourage local retailers to stock the products and residents to purchase them.
Sinks, showerheads and toilets that do not waste water are marked with a blue and green water droplet logo under the EPA's WaterSense program.
Eileen Commane, executive director of Dedham-Westwood Water District, said the new program is similar to the EPA Energy Star logo placed on energy-saving home appliances.
"This WaterSense logo will achieve very similar results with consumers," she said. "It provides more of an assurance that there's been an independent evaluation of the appliance."
By using water-saving fixtures, the average home can conserve 30,000 gallons of water each year, according to the EPA. If one out of every 10 homes in the United States upgraded to water-efficient fixtures, it could save more than 300 billion gallons and nearly $2 billion annually.
The WaterSense program is already in place in Acton, Chelmsford, Concord, Littleton, Falmouth, Ipswich, Danvers, and Shrewsbury among other cities and towns.
"The goal of EPA's WaterSense program is to help Americans save water and money by offering simple ways to reduce water use though water-efficient product choices," Sheila Frace, director of the EPA Office of Water's Municipal Support Division, said in a press release. "Using water more efficiently can help delay the need to create more supplies, saving communities money and resources, as well as ensuring that water will be available for future generations."
The average American uses 100 gallons of water each day, according to the WaterSense Web site at www.epa.gov/watersense.
Daily News staff writer Lindsey Parietti can be reached at lindsey.parietti@cnc.com.
