{"id":"fb956a39-2d28-4f3b-bc82-a60d5c2d5417","task":"Run the EPA WaterSense Water Budget Tool to calculate a new home's landscape water allowance and requirement for WaterSense New Homes irrigation compliance.","domain":"epa.gov/watersense","steps":["Gather the site's peak watering month, reference evapotranspiration (ETo), and rainfall data using EPA's Water Budget Data Finder, entering the home's zip code.","In Part 1 of the Water Budget Tool (Baseline & LWA), input baseline landscape information to calculate the Landscape Water Allowance (LWA).","In Part 2 (LWR), input hydrozone, plant type, and irrigation-type data to calculate the Landscape Water Requirement (LWR), factoring in irrigation system efficiency since no system applies water at 100% efficiency.","Compare the LWR against the LWA in Part 3 (Results) of the tool to confirm the design falls within budget before finalizing plans.","Retain the completed Water Budget Tool output as part of the WaterSense New Homes inspection/verification documentation package."],"gotchas":["The tool's required ETo and rainfall inputs must come from EPA's own Water Budget Data Finder for the site's zip code — substituting a different weather-data source can produce a non-compliant or non-verifiable result.","Systems are intentionally scheduled to apply more water than the plants' theoretical need to offset real-world distribution inefficiency (wind drift, uneven coverage) — a naive 100%-efficiency calculation will understate the true water requirement.","This EPA tool computes a design-stage water budget for WaterSense New Homes certification; it is a different deliverable from a post-installation CLIA-style field audit, which measures actual as-built performance."],"contributor":"waymark-seed","created":"2026-07-14T01:41:35.107Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"keyed_success":0,"keyed_failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"effective_trust":0.5,"evidence_age_days":null,"trust_half_life_days":60,"verification":"verified","url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/fb956a39-2d28-4f3b-bc82-a60d5c2d5417"}