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jinniLauren Evans
5/19/16 2:47am
This is not good news. I’m a Californian born and bred. We have drought in our bones. Seriously. In our bones.

We do not leave the water on as we are washing dishes and walk away.

We do not leave the faucet on as we are brushing our teeth/shaving.

Some of us who grew up in the seventies and live alone don’t flush the toilet each time we use it. Sorry for the detail, but this is how vital it is.

Some people have replaced their lawns with vegetable gardens or less water-intensive foliage.

Water is life.

What is happening in both Northern and Southern California (Silicon Valley and Hollywood/LA) is immigration from the rest of the United States from places in which drought conditions scarcely exist if at all. And dammit, they want their green lawns, and to leave their faucets running, and establish verdant landscaping and so on and so on and so on.

In the seventies, California was super-environmentally progressive; small cars, solar panels, and water conservation were all part of the landscape. And we are losing our way in this. And it really makes me so sad.

There truly is something sacrosanct about the land here; the land that the Native Americans preserved for millennia. The redwoods; the forests; the rolling hills; the deserts; and the incredibly rich soil in which much of the nation’s produce is grown. Climate change has caused a drastic uptick in wildfires, and some places ran out of water to fight them. What we have managed to destroy and desecrate in this beautiful state over a mere half-century is amazing to me.

Silicon Valley? Was orchards and agricultural when I was a child. Lax zoning laws have meant that everything that was once earth has now been covered by highways, parking lots, office buildings, Starbucks, and smog.

I’m sorry for the rant, but we need to preserve this land. And we need to make an effort. Even if just for ourselves. To show that the earth upon which we live is important, is beautiful, and we need to be better guardians than that which we currently are.

Please keep mindful I wish the Water Control Board would say.

But, of course, they would be preaching to the choir. Those of us inclined to conserve already do. Those who do not give a whit about the deer, the squirrel, the bear, the coyote, the owl, the wolf will continue to live extravagantly.

I miss the way we used to be. I cannot imagine how indigenous peoples must feel.
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  jpomonkeyjinni
  5/19/16 3:02am
  Very well said. Agreed 100%.
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  VeryVickyjinni
  5/19/16 3:48am
  You’ve eloquently made your point. We all have to conserve water and preserve as much of nature as we can.
  
  Others look at Canada and think we have nothing to worry about on that front but there are many communities that often can’t drink water without boiling it first. Not just far flung First Nation reserves without running water or water treatment plants, but towns on the outskirts of Montreal. That’s not as bad as a drought but it certainly means that anyone could be without access to clean drinking water and we shouldn’t take such a resource for granted. Regulations need to be put in place everywhere because people just don’t get it.
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Octopit didn't choose the burrito life, the burrito life chose octopit.Lauren Evans
5/19/16 2:26am
Oh goody, now I can watch people water their green lawns that they planted IN THE GODDAMN DESERT. THE MOJAVE DESERT. GREEN LAWNS. THAT IS A PROBLEM.

Seriously, it makes me hate humans. I just want to point at them and scream ‘YOU ARE THE PROBLEM, YOU ARE WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS!’
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  ohmydearskiOctopit didn't choose the burrito life, the burrito life chose octopit.
  5/19/16 2:37am
  Forget it Octopit, it’s Chinatown.
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  Aiwaz418Octopit didn't choose the burrito life, the burrito life chose octopit.
  5/19/16 2:46am
  Unless you’re talking about Lancaster, Palmdale or Victorville, no major California cities are in the Mojave, and most of the major cities of California are not in a desert.
  
  This is a misconception that needs to end.
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jpomonkeyLauren Evans
5/19/16 2:58am
This makes zero sense. I guess since there’s been 2 steps forward there needs to be 1 step back? The water restrictions are working. Let them continue to work. Ultimately, having restrictions has a large-reaching positive effect across the entire Western US, not just Cali.

Everyone should be conserving water everywhere, not just where water’s scarce. I live in the PNW & I’ve installed water saving devices & don’t water my lawn, ever. Water is a precious resource & should be treated as such. (I should note that the PNW is also facing its own water shortage, but it’s not as dire as California’s... yet.)

Related, I wanna give a a shout out to Cascade Locks, Ore., which just voted NO on a Nestle water bottling plant in the Columbia River Gorge by passing a measure that prohibits all large-scale water bottling operations. Water should not be wasted, privatized & sold for profit, period.
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  Cathy Newmanjpomonkey
  5/19/16 8:31am
  I live in south Louisiana and TBH I get mad when I see people watering lawns in the middle of the day. Or keeping auto sprinklers on while it’s raining. Maybe it’s the 2 years I spent in Nor Cal, but yeah I agree, everyone should feel the need to conserve water.
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  I'm Knitting a Sweaterjpomonkey
  5/19/16 10:09am
  I read it as there still need to be water restrictions but rather than statewide mandates local government becomes responsible for issuing them.
  
  As long as they actually do issue them in a way that protects the supply couldn’t this be better? You’d have restrictions based on local climate.
  
  Unfortunately as I’m typing this out I realize that money will buy legislation to suit their own needs because, “who cares if the water table collapses in 25 years? My company! Is profitable now!”
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vdubyajohnLauren Evans
5/19/16 1:55pm
Of course this is good news! Everyone knows that the underground aquifers respect above ground political boundaries.
Also, the water problems are over for good!

/s
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daevildogLauren Evans
5/19/16 3:49am
Stupid idea... we need to save now. One year of “average”rainfall doesn’t make up several years of drought. We will probably go through a couple years drought before the next El Nino year of “average” precipitation.
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8of8Lauren Evans
5/19/16 8:21am
Great. Now the old bitchy neighbor lady can go back to watering her precious grass at 2pm every afternoon. /s
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