Last year city officials asked every residence to cut back on personal water consumption by 10 percent to help conserve our most precious natural resource, water. As you can see by one of our recent water bills, our household went above and beyond. (This month’s bill was even better -- 51% lower!)
Unfortunately, the majority of San Diegans did not share our enthusiasm and continued to wash half-full loads of laundry and dishes, water lawns during rainy weeks, wash down walkways and take long showers. Overall consumption dropped a mere 5%. Now we’re all about to suffer.
The agency that regulates our water supply is cutting back because of prolonged drought, which means we’re forced to cut down – and pay more for the water we will use. Other water authorities are doing the same elsewhere in the state. Beginning in June, each San Diegan household is going to be given an allotment and will pay stiff fines if it goes over the gallon limit. Habitual offenders, I’m told, will have some kind of device placed on their valves to force conservation.
It’s even worse in agricultural zones, where farmers are being forced to let fields go fallow because they can no longer irrigate them. Given California’s Central Valley provides the bulk of domestic produce and nuts for the rest of the U.S., you can expect the price of those goods to go up as well.
The other day there was a sign at the gym warning everyone to limit showers to five minutes or less because of the water restrictions. It got me thinking. Will the city turn off water fountains we use on our runs? Will the cost of races rise even more to compensate for more expensive water? We have volunteers who refill 16- and 20-gallon jugs for our track club’s training program aid stations – will they still be as generous if it costs them part of their daily allotment?
13 comments:
i think we're doing this in LA as well!!
Very important post. I hope they don't force you to cut back the same percentage as everyone else on your already rigidly reduced useage.
You pose a great question Anne. I did a project at LADWP almost 20 years ago now where one of the questions that we posed was how to strategically deal with revenue and reduced water usage (no answer back then, just posed the question).
It's a unique issue. You ask your consumers to cut back for social benefit, but at the reduction of your revnues. No easy answer....
Kudos to you and your family!
I always think of drought stricken countries like Africa while brushing my teeth. A reminder to turn the tap off.
Good for doing your part!
We went as far as to change out all of our plumbing (huge difference!) and turned off the timer on the sprinkler system. Our usage has gone WAY down. What's up with everyone else???
Good job on saving so much water, I've noticed that you can save water in many different ways. You just have to be actively aware of it.
Do you know if all of SD is going to have those new water restrictions come June? Hopefully that won't have to affect us, running-wise.
SDRunner,
The mandatory conservation that begins June 1 is for anyone who receives water from the city of San Diego. That's about 2 million people. I'm not sure about the South Bay, East County or North County. I do know other parts of the state -- like LA and the Central Valley -- are in the same situation. (The Central Valley's restriction is a little different, though, and based on preservation of smelt in the Sacramento Delta). Northern California is slightly better off because it gets rain.
I don't watch much TV, but I'm seeing all kinds of PSAs alerting people that we don't have enough water. It's pretty startling to see how low we are!
great job cutting back! it's crazy that people don't realize that even the smallest things such as turning off the water when brushing your teeth can really add up and it doesn't take very long for those things to become habit - like turning off the lights when you leave a room.
Nice job on cutting back and doing your part, sucks that not everybody does the same.
No water problems here, but in my own little ways I try to conserve on water. Wife thinks I'm nuts, but every little bit helps, I hope anyways.
That's very sad. And here we are surrounded by the Great Lakes AND our rivers are flooded over and it still rains every weekend! Doesn't seem fair, I'm sure.
When the rancher I worked for in Ventura County chose not to renew his 20-year lease on properties his family had leased for nearly a hundred years, he said, "In 20 years, I'm not going to be able to afford the water." That was in 1990. So they can't say no one saw it coming....
Huh. California's problem is really everyone's problem - or at least should be viewed that way. Thank you for sharing how it's already impacting your daily life. It gave me drink for thought.
Just keep in mind that sometimes, people can get screwed with water bills. We think our water valve was faulty about a year ago, even though it kept testing as "within acceptable limits." We basically would have flooded our lawn 20 times over to have used the amount of water our town said we did. Our bill was 14 times our normal bill, we fought it and lost. Now we are still paying off that bill, a year later. So I'd keep a really close eye on your water meter - believe me, you do not want to get hit with those surcharges. Oh, and I agree with Peter's comment where your family is concerned. You guys are great!
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