Discussion»Statements»Rosie's Corner» Governor Newsome has asked Californians to cut back on water usage by 15% over last year's use. Where would YOU cut back if you were asked?
Our retirement community has no lawns. Green colored cement or small rocks. We use a lot of bottled water so in a way we have always cut back but I'm pretty sure the guv means to cut back 15% on our usage not on what we could have been using. So Jim and I are trying to figure where how and when. It's a request now but I think it will be mandated ordered at some point. Unless we get rain and a lot of it we're in for a very rough time. Thank you for your reply Walt! :)
I think it's kind of ironic ... that we are told climate change results in less rainfall, so we're facing water shortages ... but it also results in rising sea levels. Why not just build de-salination plants near the oceans, to offset the lack of water from rainfall? Seems a simple solution, to me.
Don't we already have desalination plants Walt? I don't know anything about them but I have heard of them. I'm not aware of any limitations to the number we can have. Maybe the cost is prohibitive though. I'll Google it and find out. Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink. RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER as I recall. Thank you for your reply m'dear! I'll get back here with some info! :)
I don't think the US has any desalination plants. We have been blessed with plenty of rivers, lakes, and underground reservoirs. But with more of those sources disappearing, we'll probably need to build alternatives in the next 50 years.
Did you not see my question about that Walt? Carlsbad, California has one that cost $1 BILLION and costs $50 MILLION per year in energy. If there are others they probably are as expensive. I'll Google it and find out. Thank you for your reply.
I stopped watering the lawns about 5 years ago. Once a year I have to fill my swimming pool, which I close each fall with about 90% of the water still in it. My wife would plotz without her swimming pool. I supposed I could cut back on my weekly shower.
This post was edited by Element 99 at July 9, 2021 11:20 AM MDT
Many people around here have removed their lawns and some jurisdictions have paid homeowners to remove them. We don't have a lawn, so that's not an issue. I suppose I could take shorter showers. I do tend to spend a while in there.
It's not easy, but I'm trying. I've stopped watering my lawns, but now they're a dry fire hazard. I have many potted plants, but it's so dry (no humidity) that they dry out in just a few hours, however I only water them every other day. I cut back watering my gladiolus and roses to every 3rd or 4th day. I take 3-4 minute showers (and save some for my flower gardens). Then I see my neighbor out hand watering a super lush green lawn (he also waters the lawn with a sprinkler).
Since the neighbors have cut down nearly every tree on their properties over the last few years, the sun beats down on my property all day long. With no lawn, it makes my house even hotter than it used to be. (all my trees fell down in a snowstorm a while back).
ts actually a very beautiful area. It's PG&E and paranoid flatlanders who are ruining it (see a tree cut it down lest it may fall someday). Heat like this is unprecedented. The average high temp for today is 89.
It may be different in sub-tropical California but gardening programmes etc in Britain say lawns will usually come back after a drought provided you don't disturb them. So it's a matter of keeping off where the grass was.
I'd save water by not watering plants that can survive without (the lawn, and shrubs) and not washing the car. I have a watering system controlled by a time-switch, and this looks after the more important, food, plants. It's been off for the last two weeks due to rain spells! Washing my car takes just two buckets of water: one to wash, the second to rinse.
I use the shower not bath. I don't draw washing-up water from the boiler because it takes a bowl-full before the hot water appears at the tap - I boil a kettle-full and add that to half a bowl of cold water.
Also use a low-rate setting on the washing machine.
My home, as so many here are now, has a meter on the supply so I pay for what I use rather than the old system that was based on the home's "rateable value" irrespective of water use.
The only thing that I could do is to shower less frequently---once every two days or so. I live alone, I hand-wash my dishes, I visit a self-service laundry to wash my clothes. I use a bucket to save the cold water that runs off until the water reaches a sufficient warm temperature for my shower, and I use the saved water to wash my hands and to flush my toilet (I've been doing this for over 30 years).
Walt O'Reagun 