Los Angeles nears water rationing

[babylonsister]

Los Angeles nears water rationing
Tue Feb 17, 2009 9:10pm EST

By Steve Gorman


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - With a recent flurry of winter storms doing little to dampen California's latest drought, the nation's biggest public utility voted on Tuesday to impose water rationing in Los Angeles for the first time in nearly two decades.

Under the plan adopted in principle by the governing board of the L.A. Department of Water and Power, homes and businesses would pay a penalty rate -- nearly double normal prices -- for any water they use in excess of a reduced monthly allowance.

The five-member board plans to formally vote on details of the measure next month.

The rationing scheme is expected to take effect in May unless the City Council acts before then to reject it -- a move seen as unlikely since Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for the measure under a water-shortage plan last week.

The only other time such penalty pricing was imposed to force conservation in the nation's second biggest city was a rationing system put into effect for a year starting in March 1991, at the height of California's last statewide drought.

more...

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51H0AL20090218?sp=true

[LWolf]

1. Which should have happened 100 years ago.

The Owens valley would be in better shape today.

I grew up in Los Angeles County. I lived there for 36 years. My oldest son still does.

I'm well acquainted with the on-going California water wars. It's my firm belief that development should be driven by the population that local resources can support, not dependent on claiming water from the north and shipping it to the south.