LOS
ANGELES — Some Californians are already showering just once a week,
with buckets at their feet to catch every errant drop. They are building
rainwater tanks in their backyards and replacing their lawns with
mesquite and desert sage. They glare at water-wasting neighbors, and
post photographs online to “drought shame” businesses that spray down
their sidewalks.
But
a day after Gov. Jerry Brown announced sweeping mandatory cuts to water
use, Californians said they worried that their efforts to scrimp and
conserve were simply not enough in the face of a four-year drought that
has drained reservoirs, robbed mountains of snow and raised concerns
about an increasingly scarce and precious resource.
In Marin County, just outside San Francisco, Chas Blackford, 64,
recently installed a $500 gray-water system that lets him use water from
the laundry machine on the drought-resistant plants in his yard. In
other efforts to be thrifty, he pours used pasta water onto his garden,
shares a bath with his wife and has replaced his lawn with crushed
granite.
“At
this point, there is not much more we can do except be more vigilant,”
Mr. Blackford said. He applauded Mr. Brown’s call for water agencies to
use conservation pricing — with higher water costs, either in terms of
rates or penalties — for bigger users.
“We need a water tax” he said.
Felicia
Marcus, the head of the State Water Resources Control Board, said her
board would release a proposal in about two weeks on how to achieve the
25 percent statewide reduction in water contained in Mr. Brown’s order
on Wednesday. Communities could be ordered to cut their water
consumption by about 10 percent to as high as 35 percent, depending on
their conservation efforts to date. The per capita water consumption
rate in some communities is two or three times the state average.
0 comments :
Post a Comment