Lake Elsinore, CA Water Use Rules: Recycled Water Rules (2026)

Chapter 19.08's planting plan requirements are one piece of the Water Efficient Landscape Requirements ordinance the City Council adopted by Ordinance No. 1269 in 2010 and amended by Ordinance No. 1351 in 2016. Section 19.08.070(G) directs that recycled water, also called reclaimed water or treated sewage effluent water under the chapter's definitions (§ 19.08.030), shall be used where available as the irrigation source and for decorative water features, rather than treated potable supply. The project information sheet every applicant files with the Community Development Director must disclose the intended water supply, potable, well or recycled, and the chapter states use of recycled water is encouraged even where the primary source is potable (§ 19.08.060(G)).

Recycled-water use also carries a design incentive: areas irrigated with recycled water qualify as special landscape areas under § 19.08.030, letting their maximum applied water allowance calculation run with an ET adjustment factor of up to 1.0 instead of the tighter 0.55 residential or 0.45 nonresidential factor that otherwise caps a project's water budget. The rule applies to the same range of projects as the rest of the chapter, new construction, developer- and homeowner-installed single and multifamily landscapes requiring a permit or design review, and new or rehabilitated cemeteries, parks and schools (§ 19.08.040), and is reviewed alongside the planting, irrigation, soil management and grading plans the Community Development Director must approve before any certificate of occupancy issues (§ 19.08.050(B)).