[Insider] The Biden administration has officially reversed Trump-era relaxations of water conservation standards former President Donald Trump personally pushed for that allowed more gallons of water per minute to flow through showerheads. Under standards initially set in the 1990s, federal regulations stipulated that all newly manufactured toilets had to use a maximum of 1.6 gallons of water per flush and new showerheads could only use 2.5 gallons of water a minute. Under the Obama administration in 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency tweaked the regulation to also apply that limit to more modern shower fixtures with multiple nozzles.
But when Trump was in office, the EPA relaxed the standard even further to apply the 2.5 gallon limit to each individual nozzle on a showerhead, meaning a showerhead with two nozzles could use five gallons of water per minute.
Because the Trump rule only went into effect a year ago in December 2020, shortly before Trump left office, consumers aren't likely to see much of a difference in their showerheads and water pressure, the Washington Post noted.