ALONG WITH roughly 800 new state laws in California this year, the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District has its own new rule requiring that homeowners and business owners start switching to “high-efficiency” toilets, which use a meager 1.28 gallons of water per flush.

“We are requiring the high efficiency toilets for new construction, remodels and replacement of old toilets,” and when houses are sold, Stephanie Pintar, water demand manager for the MPWMD, told The Pine Cone.

But the water district — which is calling for the 1.28-gallon toilets instead of the previously mandated 1.6-gallon variety — is offering cash for some of those who retrofit their bathrooms with the new toilets.

“We will give up to $200 dollars for voluntarily replacing an older toilet with a high-efficiency one,” Pintar said.

Businesses can receive rebates for up to 20 toilets.

In the late 1990s, the water district board passed an ordinance requiring all “visitor-serving” business, such as hotels, restaurants and gas stations, to install 1.6-gallon toilets by Dec. 30, 2000.

While those businesses are not being told to retrofit their toilets, non-visitor serving business such as banks and retail stores that were not required in 2000 to update their toilets are now required to install the 1.28-gallon version.

“We don’t know how many businesses that will affect on the Peninsula,” Pintar said.

Retrofits by non-residential customers will save approximately 160-acre feet of water per year, Pintar said.

She said the district is one step ahead of a requirement by the state, which in 2014 will require that only 1.28-gallon toilets be available for sale.

High efficiency toilets are readily available and stores have already been phasing out the old 1.6-gallon versions. Of the more than 30 different types of toilets Home Depot in Seaside offers, all but one is of the high efficiency variety, according to Pintar.

Some residential and commercial water users who install high efficiency toilets and other devices such as shower heads, faucets and clothes washers may be eligible for rebates and water credits.

Homeowners who are not remodeling or building a new house won’t be required to switch to the new toilets. But anyone who sells a house will.

“But they are encouraged to take advantage of the rebate program,” Pintar said.

For details about the new rules and the water district’s rebates, go to www.montereywaterinfo.org.