…at dinner this evening we learned that the State has placed an order for flyers announcing a mandatory 50% reduction in water usage, statewide, with the percentage reduction calculated in comparison to last year’s usage.
This is on an individual water-user basis to the tune of a $500 fine per citation, which normally would be ignored in our neck of the woods, but the State’s cleverly dragooned the local water districts into being unpaid enforcers, because if they don’t meet the target at the district level they’ll lose State funding.
Now, this is just what I was told, mind you.
Still and all, I’m chuckling because those of us who kept our lawns green all year, watered at night when the water cops sleep, and generally kept our water usage at normal levels are gonna be at quite the advantage over those suckers who ripped out their landscaping for that drought-tolerant cacti and pebbles motif last year.
It’s math, baby! I can drop my water use 50% and still take 40-minute showers every morning. I know people who are going to have issues flushing their toilets if this works out the way it was described to me tonight.
um … you are aware that California has been taking water from the Pacific NorthWest (Oregon, Washington) for decades. Right? They get the water, we get the money, and if they use less water, we get less money.
No problem. We have renewable resources. They have lots of money. It works out to our mutual advantage.
If they find another source of water, then we’ll just irrigate Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon to a greater degree. Washington and Oregon still come out ahead, and Californians will merely become emigrants to the Pacific North West at a younger age.
Residential use statewide is 5% of overall water consumption. Cutting 50% of 5% get’s us nowhere. What a waste of time.