Apple Valley, CA Water Use Rules: Recycled Water Rules (2026)

Chapter 6.40, the Water Conservation Plan, was adopted after the Town Council found the local water table in an apparent overdraft and set a goal of roughly a 10 percent reduction in water use. Section 6.40.030(B) lists 19 conservation measures every water user must follow, including irrigation-hour limits and low-flow fixture mandates, but its final paragraph, (19), lets 'projects, including commercial and planned unit developments, which utilize recycled water from sewage treatment or agricultural operations' receive a Town Council-approved exemption from paragraphs (15) through (18): the mandates for drought-tolerant landscaping on new commercial and industrial construction, low-precipitation sprinkler equipment, and 50 percent drought-tolerant planting at new model homes.

The Development Code's landscaping chapter reinforces recycled water use for water features: § 9.75.050(E)(2) directs that, where available, recycled water shall be used as the source for decorative water features rather than potable water. Landscape areas irrigated with recycled water also get more favorable water-budget treatment under the Chapter 9.75 definitions: they qualify as a 'Special Landscape Area,' allowed an Evapotranspiration Adjustment Factor up to 1.0 when calculating a project's Maximum Applied Water Allowance, compared with 0.55 for ordinary residential landscape and 0.45 for non-residential landscape citywide.

Neither provision requires a property owner to hook up to recycled water; each rewards voluntary use with relief from other landscaping and water-use standards.