Taking Action on the Climate - Part 6 (Water politics)

As we wait for the next storm to arrive that is supposed to soak us through the long holiday weekend, I am still mulling over Diana Diamond's editorial in the Monday Daily Post.  Ms. Diamond is the Associate Editor for the Daily Post.  She wrote an editorial with some background comments on water usage because "both Menlo Park and Palo Alto are considering limiting water use by residents, focusing on our outdoor landscaping to conserve water."  The State of California implemented some new water limits for lawn care as of January 1, but Ms. Diamond notes:

I studied how California's water is being used.  The most amazing and fascinating number was than only 13% of the entire state's water usage is by it 36 million residents--and that includes all toilet flushing, showers, toothbrush use, cooking, lawn watering, etc. for 35,893,799 of us.

That means that 87% is used for industrial, agricultural, hydroelectric-generating and landscaping needs....Industrial water use has declined 24% since 1985 and in 2000 was the lowest level since reporting began in 1950.

Bringing it closer to home, she writes

Menlo Park is considering a plan that would limit the lawn on any new or substantially remodeled home to just 25% of the portion of the front and backyard or 500 square feet, whichever is greater.  That's not much grass.  It's equal to the size of the typical driveway.

I can't give you the link to the full article since the Daily Post does not have a website, but Ms. Diamond does go on to ask some interesting questions about what happens to limits in rain-laden years, what the effect on water rates might be and will the water we might save just be shunted off to Southern California?  All good questions to ponder as we spend our bond money to fix up the sewer and drain systems in B'game.

Comments

[Parent]

Several winter storms are predicted to hit the Bay Area in the next couple of weeks starting Saturday 01/16/2010 in the late morning and continuing through the entire week of 01/18 to 01/23. Rain is expected to be heavy with wind gusts to 35 mph and thunder & lightening activity. Rainfall by the end of the week may be 6 to 9 inches.

Sand bags are available for pick-up for all Burlingame residents in the 1200 Block of California Dr. at Juanita Ave.

[Terry Nagel]

Don't forget to report power outages in Burlingame by filling out a power outage form at http://www.terrynagel.com/main/Report_a_Power_Outage/page370.htm.

Please report even short outages of less than a minute. Burlingamers Unwilling to Live with Blackouts (BULB) is continuing to monitor power reliability in our city.

[dtn]

speaking of politicians who probably think it is a good idea to restrict peoples lawn and watering here's Nagel.