SOSD Article

By David Berlin
UNION-TRIBUNE

October 8, 2006

SAN MARCOS – A self-proclaimed inventor all his life, John Schommer decided to focus on water conservation in 1991 because he couldn't believe how little was being done about it.

DON KOHLBAUER / Union-Tribune

John and Kathy Schommer stood among a stock of Watermiser products at their San Marcos company.

“I learned early on that everybody talks about water conservation but not a lot of people really do anything about it,” he said.

Now at age 63, Schommer continues to invent and sell his Watermiser brand water-conservation products with his wife, Kathy. Their San Marcos-based company has five employees and his inventions are used by hundreds of businesses in Southern California.

The products include the Watermiser Waterbroom, which saves 60 percent more water than a conventional hose; Miserblue, a toilet leak detector; and a Watermiser flow control valve for leaky sinks.

Schommer said most leaky toilets drip about one cup of water per minute. That adds up to 76,000 gallons of water wasted a year, or enough to fill three swimming pools.

“That's a ton!” said Schommer.

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DON KOHLBAUER / Union-Tribune

A variety of Watermiser products await assembly. Most Watermiser customers are companies that use a lot of water, but residential customers make up a growing portion of the business.

He emphasized that it costs much less money to fix a leaky toilet or sink than to let it keep on dripping.

Harlan Delzer of the Inland Empire Utilities Agency has been dealing with water conservation for 20 years and said he spent much of that time encouraging people to use Watermiser products.

“If we used the Watermiser products across the entire nation, we'd be much better off,” said Delzer, the agency's contracts and programs administrator.

This year Delzer nominated Watermiser for the first-ever Environmental Protection Agency Water Efficiency Leader Award.

“I think the award should go to the people that are literally leading the way,” Delzer said. “They have a one-of-a-kind patented product that does what it says it will do.”

He said the Los Angeles Convention Center saves millions of gallons of water a year using the Watermiser Waterbroom to clean its walkways and driveways.

“Not everyone realizes there is only a finite amount of water available,” Delzer said.

Schommer became an inventor while working on a dairy farm in Wisconsin as a boy.

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DON KOHLBAUER / Union-Tribune

Ron Westfield worked on assembling a Watermiser Waterbroom at the San Marcos company. The products help prevent wasted water from leaky toilets and sinks.

“On a farm there's always something that needs to be fixed,” he said. “For most inventors, the problem is that everything you see you think of ways to improve.”

By the time he reached his 40s, Schommer decided to focus on water because he said he wanted to leave the world a little better than he had found it.

Schommer plans on introducing several more products in the coming years but declined to get into specifics.

Schommer said the majority of Watermiser customers are businesses because they tend to be able to save the most money by conserving. Residential customers make up a smaller but growing percentage of the business.

Schommer said several Las Vegas hotels will begin using his Watermiser flow control valves this year. A hotel with about 3,000 rooms will save about $90,000 on water alone, he said.

Watermiser's biggest competition comes from large toilet manufacturers such as Sloan, American Standard and Kohler, which are developing better quality low-flush toilets, Schommer said.

As a conservationist, he still considers that good news.

“For somebody small like me, that takes millions of dollars of capital investment,” he said. “We come up with new technologies that haven't been done before.”

“If it doesn't anger you, you don't mind saving water,” Schommer said. “But if it upsets your lifestyle, you're not going to do it. That's human nature.”