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Water RestrictionsUser Forum Topic
Submitted by meadandale on April 24, 2009 - 10:32am
Is it just me or does it piss anyone else off that the City/County of San Diego are instituting mandatory water restrictions without curtailing new building permits? How can they say with a straight face "We don't have enough water, you have to cut back" and at the same time are allowing new hookups? At least in Santa Barbara during the 80's when they instituted water rationing (and everyone had a brown lawn) they imposed a building moratorium. It's not like we have a shortage of housing in the county...rents are falling, vacancies are up and there are many months of housing inventory on the market, ignoring the shadow inventory of up and coming foreclosures.
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I'm more pissed my hoa sent me a letter reminding me to keep my lawn green (I guess they think I'm a squatter), despite CA water shortage.
To piss my HOA off, I might just get a can of green spray paint and paint my brown spots over....neon green that is.
To piss my HOA off, I might just get a can of green spray paint and paint my brown spots over....neon green that is.
Thank goodness I don't have HOA. I can't stand them. If there's HOA in my area, they would have given me so many citation, it wouldn't be funny. When you're so busy fixing up the inside of your house, you tend to forget the outside for awhile.
To piss my HOA off, I might just get a can of green spray paint and paint my brown spots over....neon green that is.
Thank goodness I don't have HOA. I can't stand them. If there's HOA in my area, they would have given me so many citation, it wouldn't be funny. When you're so busy fixing up the inside of your house, you tend to forget the outside for awhile.
I'm mixed on this one wrto to HOA. I don't think mine are overbearing. They usually leave people alone....Unless someone calls and complains. It helps if one of your neighbors decides to paint their fence Forbidden City red or start planing trees/bushes at/on the property line.
I'm mixed on this one wrto to HOA. I don't think mine are overbearing. They usually leave people alone....Unless someone calls and complains. It helps if one of your neighbors decides to paint their fence Forbidden City red or start planing trees/bushes at/on the property line.
That would be sweet, a Forbidden City Red picket fence. :-). I'd gladly take that trade off for them to not tell me what I can/can't plant on my yard. What if I want to make my front yard a place for kid to play and put all those plastic swings, etc out there. That, I'd think is a big no no, right?
You want to know what really pisses me off. We have a shortage and some people essentially make pigs of themselves. In Poway the top 5% of bills make up 25% of the water used and the top 10% makes up 40% of all the water used. I understand that if you have a large property you will use more water. I think though that some of these people are making no effort to conserve at all.
Top water hogs get to avoid spotlight
http://tinyurl.com/cjlcvk
del
How on earth can someone use a half million gallons of water in two months? Or even a quarter of a million? That's 5-10k gallons A DAY!!!
And here I am feeling guilty about my 300 sq feet of lawn that I water a couple times a week for 5 minutes and my vegetable garden.
To piss my HOA off, I might just get a can of green spray paint and paint my brown spots over....neon green that is.
Yea I got one of those a few months ago, (in my case it was winter brown lawn) I needed to add some more superBlade stuff I have in a bag, but still it pissed me off, It should be interesting if we really do get into serious water rationing, I guess I will have to install that fake stuff.
I'm mixed on this one wrto to HOA. I don't think mine are overbearing. They usually leave people alone....Unless someone calls and complains. It helps if one of your neighbors decides to paint their fence Forbidden City red or start planing trees/bushes at/on the property line.
That would be sweet, a Forbidden City Red picket fence. :-). I'd gladly take that trade off for them to not tell me what I can/can't plant on my yard. What if I want to make my front yard a place for kid to play and put all those plastic swings, etc out there. That, I'd think is a big no no, right?
Well, I don't really have a front yard (most of these tract homes don't have a front yard large enough to stick anything)...And as for the backyard, you can do anything you want (out of sight, out of mind). Just don't drive a 5 inch nail into a wooden fence 1 inch thick that comes out on your neighbor's side. (That's just not cool, even if there was no HOA)
And here I am feeling guilty about my 300 sq feet of lawn that I water a couple times a week for 5 minutes and my vegetable garden.
Hey, if it's only 300 sq ft, you can just pee on your lawn. Saves water, and probably better for the lawn anyway. :)
And here I am feeling guilty about my 300 sq feet of lawn that I water a couple times a week for 5 minutes and my vegetable garden.
Hey, if it's only 300 sq ft, you can just pee on your lawn. Saves water, and probably better for the lawn anyway. :)
I'm not sure I could afford the cost of all the beer (remember, I can't use water, we are conserving) ;-)
Well, I don't really have a front yard (most of these tract homes don't have a front yard large enough to stick anything)...And as for the backyard, you can do anything you want (out of sight, out of mind). Just don't drive a 5 inch nail into a wooden fence 1 inch thick that comes out on your neighbor's side. (That's just not cool, even if there was no HOA)
That does make sense if you don't have a front yard. My front yard is about 1500 sq-ft, so you can put quite a bit of stuff out there.
The water allocation should be based on the number of inhabitants in each dwelling, not to exceed the number of bedrooms x 2.
The billed person would need to sign an affidavit stating the number of occupants, subject to audits.
Condo buildings would need to conduct surveys.
Excess water usage would be billed at punitive rates. If you're rich, it doesn't matter. You can still have your tropical landscape.
Maybe they can force the builders to install fake Lawns on anything built after 2005, That should help some.
I seen a city do something similar on a tract built a block from the coast, seems they installed wood fences but the termites started to destroy the fences in the first homes almost as soon as they were sold, so the city made them install those plastic fences even in the already sold homes that were 2 years old at that point.
The billed person would need to sign an affidavit stating the number of occupants, subject to audits.
Condo buildings would need to conduct surveys.
Excess water usage would be billed at punitive rates. If you're rich, it doesn't matter. You can still have your tropical landscape.
I heard one proposal for the way it's going to work is based on your prior year's usage + a cushion allocation. So for example if you consumed X gallons same time last year, you're allowed X+some cushion...If that's true, once again, folks who were "savers" get punished. Sound familiar?
I read something like that too. That is lame.
Savers are punished.
Larger households are also punished, when in truth
larger households are more resource efficient.
People who have larger spaces and larger lots should pay more for their lifestyle decisions.
We all know what happens when you have the wrong incentives in place: fraud and gaming of the system.
And here I am feeling guilty about my 300 sq feet of lawn that I water a couple times a week for 5 minutes and my vegetable garden.
Grass lawns require 1 inch of water per week (assuming no rain). That's 4000 gallons per day per acre.
Many folks in Northeast Poway have far more than one acre.
Guess how much water it takes to maintain this?
On the other hand, if you replace those lawns with trees and bushes and do drip irrigation, water consumption goes down drastically.
Are we in a drought, are we saving the delta smelt, or are we bankrolling the replacement of water district infrastructure? If we are going to pay more for water, I wish we could get consistent / accurate info on why rates are going up.
I heard one proposal for the way it's going to work is based on your prior year's usage + a cushion allocation. So for example if you consumed X gallons same time last year, you're allowed X+some cushion...If that's true, once again, folks who were "savers" get punished. Sound familiar?
Ugh - say it isn't so. We've been thrifty with our water for a while. As we've replaced toilets we've put in eco ones (dual mode, low water)... As we've relandscaped, post construction, we've been doing more zero-scaping. We've been big users of drip irrigation for our fruit trees, rather than sprinklers.
It definitely seems like it will punish the folks who were already being thrifty.
Next you'll tell me power consumption is going to be rationed, based on past years use... We'd be screwed there too, since we're already using 1/2 compared to neighbors in the same model house. (We compared bills when we were talking about solar power systems - they just got one, we're considering it.)
The only saving grace is we haven't implemented our gray water system for irrigation. We've got it planned, but not implemented yet. This is definitely discouraging us from implementing it for the near term.
All I know is that as soon as it rains, people start crying about mud-slides and car accidents. I also noticed that when it rains, people always say it's not the right kind of rain that we need. People, please make up your minds. This is exclusive to southern CA of course.
The latest that I have heard is that the City of San Diego is not going to pursue the "water budget" idea which set property-specific allocations and then charges customers extra if they exceed the amount. There was a lot of public outcry against this plan, as some of the posters above mentioned, those that have been conserving felt they would be punished.
Metropolitan Water District voted last week to cut the water delivery to the San Diego County Water Authority by 13% and will be raising rates by 20% this year and then another 20% next year. SDCWA is the wholesaler to 24 member agencies in the county. Approximately 85% of the water comes from MWD. SDCWA will need to ration approximatey 8% to the member agencies. Yesterday SDCWA moved to a Level 2 drought alert. Each member agency will be adopting their conservation strategies between now and July 1st. In approximately 30% of the water agencies Level 2 brings restictions on new water-service connections. Check the website of your local water agency (who you pay your bill to) or check out www.sdcwa.org and click on member agencies to find the link to your local agency, and while you are there check out the latest developments, water saving tips etc. You can be part of the problem or part of the solution.
One thing that I will always wonder is why rice, one of the most water intensive crops, is grown in California deserts. We are the second largest rice producing state.
Specific to UCGal. I will say it ain't so. It ain't so! Kudos to you for the measures you have adopted. Go ahead and implement your gray water system for irrigation. You won't be punished. For those interested in water-wise landscaping, The Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College is free and an excellent resource.
Spoken like a true southern californian. Rice is not grown in CA deserts. It is grown in Northern Ca delta regions. Incase you are wondering where that is, it is the area where the largest two rivers of the state colide, just before entering the San Fran Bay area. Butte, colusa, sutter, yuba, yolo counties make up the bulk of rice growing in CA. Sacramento area rivers drain all the water flowing west out of the Sierra Nevada, and they carry ALOT of water. This area recieves more than enough water in CA rainy season to not be considered a desert, unlike socal, and is the natural drain pipe for the mountains where a majority of CA water falls.
If you want to question Ag water use, question the heavy use of water to grow alfalfa. But then that is used to feed our dairy cattle which produce the milk we all drink (think of the childern!!!), the beef we eat, and the horse industry, plus a few other smaller industries. Plus farmers have historic rights to much of this water ( called water rights) and produce a necessary product for societal use, its called food.
Alot of other people think a green lawn is a god given right and all that produces is yard work and contaminated beaches from all the pesticies and fertalizers. Lets see which is more important...
The only saving grace is we haven't implemented our gray water system for irrigation. We've got it planned, but not implemented yet. This is definitely discouraging us from implementing it for the near term.
If you think that gray water irrigation is all fun and games and instant savings, think again.
- You cannot use gray water in sprinklers, because airborne gray water is a health hazard and a big no-no.
- You cannot use gray water in drip lines, because naturally occurring impurities (such as hair) will quickly clog your lines. If you attempt to filter out impurities to the level that allows you to use drip lines, you'll have to change filters so often that you'll spend far more on filters than you'll save on your water bill.
- You cannot take your gray water directly to your plants, because hot water from your washing machine will scald the roots and they'll die.
- If you try to avoid storing too much gray water in an intermediate tank, there are two options. The whole system must be fully gravity-assisted or you must install a water pump (similar to a sump pump), which will cost you money, eat electricity 24/7, and require maintenance.
- You can avoid a 24/7 pump if hook up your system to a timer and water once a day. But then you'll need a big tank which could cost you to the tune of $500. You don't want to go less frequently than once a day, because graywater can't be stored for too long before it turns into blackwater.
The only saving grace is we haven't implemented our gray water system for irrigation. We've got it planned, but not implemented yet. This is definitely discouraging us from implementing it for the near term.
If you think that gray water irrigation is all fun and games and instant savings, think again.
- You cannot use gray water in sprinklers, because airborne gray water is a health hazard and a big no-no.
- You cannot use gray water in drip lines, because naturally occurring impurities (such as hair) will quickly clog your lines. If you attempt to filter out impurities to the level that allows you to use drip lines, you'll have to change filters so often that you'll spend far more on filters than you'll save on your water bill.
- You cannot take your gray water directly to your plants, because hot water from your washing machine will scald the roots and they'll die.
- If you try to avoid storing too much gray water in an intermediate tank, there are two options. The whole system must be fully gravity-assisted or you must install a water pump (similar to a sump pump), which will cost you money, eat electricity 24/7, and require maintenance.
- You can avoid a 24/7 pump if hook up your system to a timer and water once a day. But then you'll need a big tank which could cost you to the tune of $500. You don't want to go less frequently than once a day, because graywater can't be stored for too long before it turns into blackwater.