Articles On Information: Californians Who Conserved Wonder if State Can Overcome Those Who Didn’t

Californians Who Conserved Wonder if State Can Overcome Those Who Didn’t

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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Some Californians have cut down on watering their lawns, and others have decided to forgo greenery for native plants." data-mediaviewer-credit="Max Whittaker for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/03/us/03drought-JP/03drought-JP-superJumbo.jpg" height="219" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/03/us/03drought-JP/03drought-JP-master675.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/03/us/03drought-JP/03drought-JP-master675.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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. </div>
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“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.</div>
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“We need a water tax” he said.</div>
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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.</div>
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