Rains didn't end L.A.'s water shortage

I'm already rain-phobic, but after enduring days of clouds and watery skies, I'm super disappointed to find out that the recent rains didn't do much to mitigate our water shortage issues.

Apparently, the rains didn't help "because Southern California depends heavily on imported water that has been reduced by prolonged drought and court-ordered cutbacks," according to the L.A. Times. Higher water bills look more than likely, as the Metropolitan Water District is considering a contingency plan to cut water deliveries to its member cities.

The combo of wet weather and a water shortage is a rather depressing scenario. If we more quickly implemented the advice of people like Andy Lipkis at TreePeople, we'd actually be able to save more of our rainfall and use it to meet our needs instead of spending lots of money and energy importing H2O from other states. As it is, urban cistern systems for saving our rainfall still remain at the pilot program level. For the most part, we basically dump all our clean rainwater into the ocean.

Which brings me to Edward McClelland's watery article in Salon.com. Edward cheekily calls for a return to the Great Lakes States, where water is more plentiful: "Sun Belters, you have a choice: get used to the droughts, or move to Detroit -- or Cleveland, or Syracuse, or Chicago, or Duluth -- and get used to the winters. They're not as tough as they used to be. As you may have noticed, the climate is changing."

I'd rather move than conserve water -- and a big thing that could help us toward that end, Edwards points out, is getting rid of those water-thirsty lawns. He points to San Diego, which is facing major water shortages: "One of San Diego's solutions is to encourage Californians to start living like ... Californians. Grass is not a desert plant."

So give yourself an eco-friendly front yard. Or at the very least, stop watering the sidewalks, and only water the lawns when the sun isn't out. After all, it's not just about conservation; it's the law in many SoCal cities -- although a law that's not enforced much.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is supposed to consider mandatory water restrictions for L.A. this month. Feel free to write or call him to put in your two cents on the issue.

Top photo by Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times; bottom photo by Esther Perez via Flickr

Comments

[adrian]

Does anybody know about this site ( http://www.earthlab.com ) ? I have seen other environmental sites with carbon calculators like yahoo and tree huggers, but I am wondering what the deal with earthlab.com is? I saw they also published a list last month of the top ten greenest cities ( http://www.efficientenergy.org/Top-Ten-Green-Cities-in-the-United-States ). Does anyone know if this site is better than the others? Fill me in!

I took their carbon foot print test and it was pretty interesting, they said that I put out 4.5 tons of carbon, does anyone know about any other tests?

[Angel]

If you drive through downtown LA at around 5 in the morning, you notice all the sidewalks are wet. 'What?" Exactly. Why isn't this illegal, using water to clean the sidewalk? And why is the Downtown Bid using water on their streetcleaners? What about a vacuum? What about people with brooms? You give people jobs and you cut down on having to use a streetcleaner.

[sheila]

as long as people are contacting the mayor, let's say something important:

LOS ANGELES DEMANDS MORE CODES, SUBSIDIES, REBATES, INCENTIVES AND POLICIES WHICH ENCOURAGE AND REWARD WATER AND POWER CONSERVATION, LOCAL (RESIDENTIAL/COMMERCIAL) PV/WIND (NOT THE HORRIBLE WILDERNESS DESTRUCTION THAT HE KEEPS PUSHING FOR), AND RESIDENTIAL/COMMERCIAL GREYWATER AND CISTERN SYSTEMS; AND WHICH DISCOURAGE EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF WATER AND POWER, INCLUDING YOUR OWN.

and Angel, the trouble is that you can't sweep urine out of doorways with a broom - homelessness is a sad fact of downtown and urine is the least of its fallout...