Permanent water conservation rules for Californians "per person per" day

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John,

I recall being in Oregon on a road trip in 1974 and saw lots of cars with bumper stickers that read, “Don’t Californinicate Oregon”.

It’s never welocme anywhere I guess when the natives see an influx of outsiders that change the way of life for the locals.

Eddie
 
I don't recall hearing of that bumper sticker before, Eddie, although I'm not surprised by it. There certainly has been real anti-Californian sentiment. One person who came out of CA, and lived in the Seattle area for a period, told me one reason he left was because he was tired of how get treated sometimes.

 

I'm sure one issue is how crowded the area has gotten, and how the cost of living has gone up. But, at the same time, there have been lots and lots of people who've moved from other places, too, and I don't hear the same sort of vitriolic comments about, say, people from the Midwest who crack and decide they can't stand another cold, snowy winter.

 
 
It's a "catch 22" situation

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">Down a ways from where I live the new Del Webb Rancho Mirage Community is taking shape and homes are already being purchased. This is the third Del Webb development here. When I drive by the first thing I think about is "where is all the additional water going to come from for these 1,026 homes?" Edison can always slap some new power plants together and natural gas doesn't seem to be a current problem, but water is. The Desert has a natural aquifer below the surface. This is where most of our water comes from. More and more water has to be taken from the Colorado River in order to replenish the aquifer. The Colorado River is already strained due to area droughts. It's not like it's a bottomless pit. Add to this the ongoing war between Southern and Northern California. In normal years, the northern half gets far more rainfall than down here, yet millions more people live in Southern California and the climate is much warmer. Many of my hometown (San Jose) friends will point a finger at me and say "Thief!..you people are stealing our water!" It's not a pleasant situation, and the recent drought only exasperates the turmoil. I guess in the final analysis the problem is just too many people. </span>

 

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">I suppose posting signs would be in poor taste...</span>

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You're correct Joe!

All one needs to do is look at photos of lake Meade before 2005 or so. You can see where the higher water level used to be. They've even had to retrofit the water intakes for the dams hydro plant at a lower depth so they don't draw in air.
I think those Del Web plans all have owner associations, like a condo.
Not a fan of them. My inlaws are selling their condo, as the dues keep increasing, and they don't even pay for the water or taxes like some do. Members often argue and dispute many issues. So they say it will be less expensive to hire out lawn and snow removal service.
Newer styles are so crammed together for more units per acre. I don't like that high of a density housing situation. You hear when your neighbors garage door opens, as they are all beneath living spaces. They look like tenements. Small front porches, no a stoop is all you get.
So do you think Del Web got the idea from Lesiure World? Sun City Arizona?
In the D.C. and northern Virginia areas, they've even built some that are 6 or 8 stories tall, and sprawl out a half mile. Ala' Danzik Poland paneleck fowlowieck style. Larger units of course though. For now.

Man seems to be his own worst enemy. Stop reproducing like rabbits. Or at least live in the green spaces.
 
re; Colorado river

doesn't even reach it's former delta anymore either.

I'm not one to criticize media too much, even if I disagree with it. By seeing and listening to different news sources, I can "read between the lines" so to speak. Example; I learned of both candidates attending their weddings, their kids are friends, that they know many, many of the same people, whom have lot's and lot's of money, from the same city, same state. Do the math. Makes little difference then which. Whom of those people have more money and power than a president?
Ex; Time Warner and AT&T are merging after all.
 
Fourth generation San Diegan and Californian here

TLDR: California especially Southern California is a very pleasant place to live. We've lived in San Diego for four generations and most of our family still calls San Diego home. The cost of living, home prices, and taxes can make it a challenging place to be but we love it here and plan to stay.

Southern Californian's enjoy one of the most pleasant year-round climates. Within two hours of San Diego are mountains Palomar Mountain at 6,100 ft, Cuyamaca up to 6,500 ft, desert Borrego, tons of beaches, Mammoth is six hours away, Yosemite is 8 hours away. Our semi-arid Mediterranean climate is pleasant year-round and only a handful of cities have a similarly pleasant climate The Canary Islands, Spain’s Costa del Sol, Sao Palo, Sydney, Medellin, and Lihue has similarily pleasant year-round climates. We're generally a diverse, tolerant, and multi-culturally oriented. It's progressive and liberal with some pockets of conservatives.
We also have our challenges with affordable housing and the high cost of living. Prop 13 which fixes your homes sale prices as the tax rate plus an increase of up to two percent a year. So you get folks with absurdly low tax bases sitting next to folks with market rate tax bases. Plus businesses are included so you see apartment building or other buildings with very low tax bases.
It's not perfect here and San Diego home prices and cost of living combined with what we call the Sunshine tax or lower wages in San Diego can make life tough. San Diego's wages and cost of living and housing prices are more out of wack than LA or other cities but where the cost of living and homes is high but wages are generally higher.
 
The last month between when company was here for a week and when we started irrigating and filling the pool, water usage was 4,800 gallons. Divided by 3 people then divide that by 30 days that’s 53 gallons per person per day.

That’s with two low flow toilets and one 1960s water guzzler American Standard, a water guzzler washer, full flow showerheads, two people that shower every day, and two people that like to flush 2-3 times for every visit to the toilet.
 
Things can actually get even worse, here in South Africa Cape Town has been hit by a severe drought for the last three years, water consumption is capped at 85 liter person per day that equates to about 22 gallon (US).

That is very tough, there was even mentioning of it going down to 65 liter per person per day. Here people are steadily changing top loader washers to front loaders and paving your lawns, or plastic lawn. Washing machine water is captured in tanks and is fed to the toilets via a pressure control pump system.

A lot of folks have started getting boreholes, but it is expensive to bore, success is never guaranteed, and the goverment wants to have control over it, but that is a tall order, as not everybody register their boreholes.

So just keep in mind there are even more dryer places than Cali.

Regards
 
That recycling laundry water to flush toilets

in Capetown is ingenious!
Dylan Mitchel, what do you think about the proposal going on the California ballot to split it into 3 states?
One will control most of the water? Will it make you more vulnerable for Mexico to try to take back?
Even if it passes, congress must approve it.
Last time it happened was in 1863 when West Virginia split form Virginia during the civil war.
 
I call it "The Thor Program for Water Conservation"

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">If you could wash dishes and clothes together, then why not do laundry in the toilet...prior to using it of course. I see a whole new line of combo washer/commodes as well as conversion adapters. The late Phyllis Diller, talking about her early lean years of living in run-down motels, said she used to "wash the dirty dishes in the toilet". Not my idea of gracious living for sure.</span>

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Percent Natives for Every State

Not surprised to see Iowa at #7.

 

Whenever I meet somebody who isn't from here they almost always say it's because their spouse is and he/she wanted to move back.  Once in a while it's because of a job, but not often.

 

California is not as low on this list as I would have guessed.  The high cost of living does deter a lot of people I guess.

http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/
 
I was interested to see my state (WA) in the 46.9% native range. I'm not surprised. I'm not sure what number I'd have guessed--actually, I hate trying to guess such things because I usually am far off! But it seems like a lot of people whom I know come from some other state. Including myself, although I'm "near native" in that my family moved here really young.

 

 
 
I was also interested in the table showing natives in a state 1910-2010. WA was pretty  much the 40% range in recent decades. I'd almost have guessed a higher level of natives at one point, given how much whining there was about Californians moving in.

 

I suppose, though,  non-natives moving in might think it was OK for anyone to move in. Then, the day after they'd moved in, they'd start thinking anyone moving in would be ruining the state.
 
San Francisco Drought

I do remember living through the drought in 1986, I believe, in San Francisco. I owned a two unit home and there were 4 people living there. We did no outside watering at all. So the City cut every residence by a fixed percentage, maybe 25%. We had no way to meet this since none of us were wasteful to begin with. I contacted the city to see if we could get a higher allowance and they raised it slightly. Even with that we paid about $40 per month in fines. We did have low flow showers and toilets.

So I remember that and hope that it will not be repeated.

I also have been in California all of my life, first in Martinez then Berkeley and San Francisco. Sacramento has been my home since 1990. It does get hot in the summer compared to the Bay Area. But it is less expensive to live here. We have a pool so that really is a plus. We are near the Mountains and reasonably close to the ocean. The natural beauty of this state really has the features of most of the rest of the country, from deserts to mountains to ocean front. Politically I lean to the Blue, but there is room for all views. Out of the past 8 governors 4 have been republican. It can be expensive to live in California but property taxes are lower than some states. Social security is not taxed. Every state has advantages and disadvantages.
 
Water in South Central Texas is becoming a major issue with the exploding population moving-in from other states and Mexico. It's the fastest growing region in the country and water supply runs low in the summer. We are in a drought and have entered Stage 2 water restrictions, no outside watering except one day a week with a sprinkler. We've cut back on indoor use, by running the dishwasher 3-4 times a week and laundry twice a month. The T/L Speed Queen uses a lot of water, esp. if a second rinse is needed. The dishwasher is two years old, KA. Daily showers, sometimes I'll wait and shower at the gym.

I sewed some new grass seed under a large shade tree in the front yard and wetting that down daily to start new grass growth. We have a courtyard in front of the house that I've been working on this year, sort of a project to help me keep my sanity while I take care of my eldery father who has Alzheimer's. The courtyard has been badly neglected over the past 3 years. It has a two tier water fountain that hasn't been used in many, many years and is in sad shape. Thought I would clean it up with muriatic acid and a pressure washer and convert it to solar with a solar conversion kit. I'm having some second thoughts about going forward at this time with the water restrictions, not sure what to do. I'm open to advice here. Going forward, any new plants needs to be drought tolerant. Snakes are a horrible problem this year, must be the drought and hot temps, so I don't want to plant anything that I can't see underneath as the courtyard is not far from the front door. Temp's have been in the low 100's and it's very hot out there with the brick work.

Flushing toilets with grey water is genius, never would have thought of that.

Barry

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Over here you can reuse grey water on the lawn.

Mum has a divertor valve in the plumbing from the laundry tub, from there a hose runs off to the lawn.

If the washer flow is greater than the hose can manage, the water temporarily backs up in the tub until it clears.

The valve on the drain lefts you switch between the grey water hose and the drain if you have stuff in there you don’t want on the lawn. That way even with a top loader you still get to use the water twice
 
Jonathan, do you still have the water fountain? I priced new fountains at a local dealer, mom & pop shop, and they were selling them at $800.00 for a comparable size, I didn't pay that many years ago, so I want to do something with it. Thought about turning it into a planter if water restrictions get worse. Need to do something with it. It's so badly stained.

Barry
 

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