LA & San Diego Cut Lawn Watering To Two Days Per Week As Drought Continues - AFP

Hit by a severe drought for the third year in a row, Los Angeles and San Diego on Monday imposed tough restrictions on the use of tap water, local officials said.

Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States with four million residents, hiked prices to encourage users to cut their consumption by 15 percent.

Watering lawns will now only be allowed on Mondays and Thursdays, tightening an earlier ban on watering gardens between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm. Local officials will patrol the area and those caught flouting the ban could face fines of up to 600 dollars.

In San Diego, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) further south, gardens may only be watered three days a week and only for 10 minutes at a time. Fines for breaking the rules could stretch to 1,000 dollars in the city of 1.3 million residents.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Drought-hit_LA_San_Diego_impose_water_ban_999.html

and here in Reno (high desert) we are in our 6th day of straight rain

We haven't had too much rain in the valley, but the weather and cloud patterns look more like late July than May/June.

today here in LOS ANGELES.

For those unfamiliar with our weather patterns, this is virtually without precedent. It simply does NOT rain this time of year. Rain typically ends in Mar or Apr and doesn't start again until Dec.

I am in the Valley area of Los Angeles. If we do not cut our water usage substantially, we will be charged up to 40% (!) more on our bill. The problem is: We have already cut our water usage. We have been so careful.
But now, with the hottest months ahead, we must cut it more (they will compare our future usage to our past usage). They will be penalizing those of us who have done all we can to conserve water. This is just another way for CA to get as much of our money as they can. Just months ago, they raised the parking meters from a quarter an hour to a dollar an hour. Fine. BUT, even if you feed the meter each hour, they TOW your car away after two hours! Then they collect much more. And, one more rant: I parked at a "no parking on Tuesday" street
(one sign, way down the block, did not see it). That used to be $22. My ticket? $58. On and on it goes.

baseline allotment than those who have cinserved for years.

Is there no mediation for total volume used (or at least usage bands)?

:wtf:

If the owner didn't want "a green lawn" in the front and back (and had his neice and her friends do a piss-poor job of clearing and laying sod), Laz and I would have xerascaped the front and just used the back and lower back for raised planters and veggie/fruit garden, where you can water with reclaimed from the shower and the clothes washer. (We use "green" laundry detergent and air dry anyway)

Hmm. Thinking about the situation a bit further, it might be worth it to cobble up a catch basin (maybe a couple kiddie pools?) and divert washer water into the backyard anyway. It won't be "code" but with a couple filters before the water gets into the first pool and perhaps some water plants and mosquito fish before dropping into a lower catch pool attached to a drip system, it should end up clean enough to water the back and not harm the local fauna that might drop by to drink. Of course, the county is talkig about cracking down on these, but if we call it a "pond"...?

San Diego County has only one plumbing company that's certified for greywater conversion, and they don't really advertise very well, from what I can see. That's got to be a business opportunity as the summer comes along.

Haele

:)