My city has gone to a 3 day a week water restriction on all landscape water use. 25 min/wk max.

[pinto]

Even though we have an estimated 7 year supply of available potable water, this will meet statewide standards for a minimum 20% reduction in water use.

Water early AM.
No run off from landscaping.
No hosing down sidewalks or driveways.

City is encouraging more xeriscaping and drought tolerant landscape choices, mulching of existing perennials / trees and limiting lawn areas within the overall landscape design.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Your city is being very smart about water usage.

I wish every city in CA would implement these directions. That would make a huge difference in how much water we consume.

[enlightenment]

2. You might want to

read the water conservation tips provided by the Southern Nevada Water Authority; we've had water restrictions for . . . ever. They do have some good advice on how to get the maximum usefulness out of the limited supply.

http://www.snwa.com/consv/conservation.html

[tularetom]

3. While almost every city in CA has enacted water restrictions, almond growers in the central valley

are drilling new wells at an unprecedented rate in order to get grandfathered in ahead of what they sense is a coming push to regulate groundwater extraction in the state. This has led to drastic depletion of water tables under much of the valley, dried up thousands of smaller domestic wells and raised pumping costs for over 5 million Californians who are customers of municipal water agencies within the valley.

The water that is used to keep lawns green in cities and suburbs is a literal drop in the bucket in comparison to the amount of water dumped on almond orchards in the state. Most of these orchards have been planted in areas where the terrain prohibited flood irrigation, but the introduction of drip systems made development of new orchards possible.

I don't have the statistics at hand, but the acreage of new almond trees planted in the past ten years is staggering. Most of these orchards are owned by corporations or investments of wealthy professionals like doctors. Makes me wonder if the world really needs this many almonds.

Anyway, the point is that restricting the lawn watering of people living on 6000 square foot lots won't do much to relieve the water crisis in CA as long as we continue to allow the unfettered drilling of new ag wells.

[pinto]

4. Yeah, I get that. Other the minimizing residential and municipal use what are our choices for ag?

I favor some enforceable standards for best water use practices in ag operations but can't see the benefit of letting them simply dry up, so to speak. They are big economic engine for the state, regardless of who invests in the operations.

The CA water wars are over a hundred years old. Maybe this recent drought cycle can be an impetus for better long range planning.

[Cleita]

5. How about the golf courses. Any restrictions on them? eom

[pinto]

6. 20% decrease in usage. Recycled water when possible. Less green space, more mulch.

[mackerel]

7. Lodi has had that for years.

There are a group of volunteers that drive around and issue out tickets to offenders. So here's the trick for those that live on the Westside, they hire landscaping companies to install timed sprinklers that go off at 3 am for 15 minutes every other morning. No patrol cars and no tickets. If there's run off nobody sees it.