I live in Paso Robles. Prior to May 15, 2015 we had a three day per week irrigation (landscape watering) rule and Mondays were a mandatory no landscape water day. Well, things are changing. They are tightening down once again in Paso.
The new rules are ONLY two days per week to water your landscape AND landscape watering is PROHIBITED Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. In addition, outdoor irrigation is NOT permitted between 9am and 7pm.
The interesting part of all this is the number of people that have an issue with this. Really? This water problem is something that impacts each and every one of us in the desert that is central to southern California. Why would you even hesitate to save water where you can?
~ Get rid of lawns. That includes you too City of Paso Robles.
~ If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.
~ Don’t let your kids play in the hose on hot days, or ever.
~ Only run dishwashers and clothes washers when full. Wear clothes an extra time if possible before putting them in the laundry.
~ Just because you are on drip does not mean you have efficient water usage. Be sure to check the soil and make sure you are not over-watering and that you don’t have leaks
~ Turn your faucets off anytime there is nothing underneath the running water.
~ Put a 5 gallon bucket in your shower to catch some of the water while you are waiting for the water to heat up. Use this water on your plants.
~ Put a 1 or 2 gallon bucket in your sink to catch extra water from hand rinsing, etc. Use this water on your plants.
~ Don’t wash your vehicle, or at the very least wash it less often.
The bottom line is this, we can ALL do better with water. We need to get over the attitude that it is not our problem or that you don’t believe in climate change. Who cares, we can still be gentler with our natural resources. I’ve also heard some folks say that I pay for it so I’m going to use it…yet another major fail in logic.
It’s time to be more aware. It’s time to join the team and work together on this. Conservation alone is not the answer but it will certainly help. And it’s not just residential use; commercial businesses, farmers, cities (city maintained grass, sprinklers, drip), state and federal land, and environmentalists all need to come to the table and look for solutions rather than kicking the can.
Some say that golf courses, ag, and city parks should all stop watering too. My opinion is that these three groups should absolutely do all they can to conserve water too but here’s the thing, golf courses bring much needed revenue to the city so that’s a tough one but I see the point. Agriculture in California provides much of the nation with food and obviously brings tremendous revenue to the state of California. City parks are places for people in the community to gather, play, and take part in community events.
I’d prefer all residential lawns, city maintained residential lawns, and commercial/ business lawns to die before we let those city park lawns go. Anyways, that’s my $0.02. I know none of this will change your mind but for those of you doing your part to conserve, thank you. For those of you that do not, good luck.
Here’s another link regarding watering from the city
https://water.usgs.gov/edu/qa-home-percapita.html
http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/pubs/indoor.html
http://www.waterinfo.org/resources/water-facts
http://www.treehugger.com/clean-water/36-eye-opening-facts-about-water.html
http://www.wired.com/2015/04/drought-isnt-californias-water-problem/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/california-water-shortage/
http://time.com/3825824/stop-counting-on-individuals-to-solve-californias-water-crisis/
http://time.com/3769534/california-drought-water-use-restrictions/
Hey Matt, I agree with you about the City parks. They are, indeed, community places. Let the individual lawns go & let’s come together in the parks. Those parks have social relevance and it’s important to keep not only the grass & plants green in those places but also our own psyche green & growing through socialization with our town’s residents. They’re a great place for all ages to come together.
Great points, Diane. Thank you!
We live outside the City limits so we are not on the same restrictions…yet! The County will eventual come around with their set of regulations but until then, we can each do our part. Something we did a couple of years ago was to add a recirculating pump on the hot water heater. You set the timer for the main hours of usage and it recirculates the hot water through your pipe system so that when you turn the hot water on you get it almost instantaneously! It uses very little electricity (we are on solar) and every home can use it!
We are on a well, so we installed a flow meter to monitor our usage and you would be surprised how much water one household can use! All of our rain gutters and area drains flow into an underground collection system that runs out to two 4′ wide X 6′ deep rock filled sumps to let the water percolate back into the ground.
Being on a septic system basically allows the water to also leech back into the ground but we still practice “yellow mellow brown flush down”. Our back yard is landscaped with drought tolerant plants and we are in the process of pulling out our front lawn and replacing it with a”rolling landscape” with drought tolerant plants. All of this does not come cheaply but being an old “hippie” it comes naturally! Clara calls me the “recycling nazi”!!! Every little bit helps!
Great comment. You are doing far more than most people are doing…and you’re right, every little bit does help!!
At Rabbit Ridge we not only stopped watering the lawn we physically removed it from the tasting room area. We have also remove 58 acres of vineyard to save water for the balance. California can survive with a little less wine but we need every drop of water as this is not going away in Paso Robles
Glad to hear that, Joanne. I read some research that shows grapes to be one of those ag crops that uses the least amount of water per ounce (roughly 3.12 gallons), where one ounce of beef takes just over 100 gallons. That said, I think residents, farmers, ranchers, commercial businesses, and government should all be conserving as much as possible because we are after all, all in this together.
I agree. I used to pound on golf courses and such, especially down in SoCal and deserts like Palm Springs, but I recently read an article on how most of them are now using gray water systems – so they use very little fresh water. So until we find a way to further process gray water to make it potable again, have at it.
There’s an interesting group of folks trying to convert the idle Morro Bay power plant to a desal facility. With desal costs nearly equal to what the state is charging for water, a high capacity power line IN to the plant (basically the same as was out), a large volume seawater intake already in place, and situated less than a half mile from a state water line, much of the infrastructure is already in place. Will be interesting to see if some of the central coast communities can come together on that effort.
Hey Kevin, yes, it seems things like golf courses and ag (vineyards in our area) are the first to be attacked. Golf courses do indeed use a lot gray water, which is great. Hunter Ranch even put in new fairways with a grass that needs far less water. Another thing to think about is how much money golf courses and ag bring into a city, county, and state versus how much water they use. Many people think that Paso needs to start ripping vineyards out. That may save water but Paso would go broke and I am sure the county close behind. Ag does use a lot of water simply due to how much ag is in our state…but technology has helped things like vineyards, deliver water to the plant in the most efficient way possible and using less water. Many wineries, like Halter Ranch, have rain collection set up on the property and places like Tablas Creek do some amount of dry farming. I go back to what I have said for 15 years…to solve drought conditions in CA we need to get better and better at conservation, we need a secondary source of water (desal), and when it does rain we need to think about capturing that water (although, the more water captured the less water that is allowed to go back into the underground reservoirs, something to think about). Cheers my friend.