Water Shortage Rant (Indio, Imperial: transplants, landscaping, neighborhood)

[Morphous01]

I'm from the east coast and there is a lot of greenery! You can see it from the sky when you fly into the outskirts of the east coast. Funny thing however, we don't use sprinkler systems that much because we get rain pretty often and the soil is more conducive to growing plants. However, people hand water there lawn when need be, and the only places that I can think of that have sprinkler systems are man made golf courses.


Anyway, when I moved to California, one of the first noticeable differences was the fact that almost every house, business, and large field, has a sprinkler system. There are even sprinkler systems in the middle of the roads to water the small plants and trees.


Well, not only are there many people moving into California that are using the water, (myself included) but, if you factor all the water that is used for all of the landscaping (which would not be there in the first place becasue THIS IS A DESERT!) I think we would not have such a issue with a water shortages.


I don't know about you, but, I get angry when politicians tell us to conserve water but late at night city water is flooding the streets from the sprinkler systems or, if it does rain all, the sprinkler systems are still going off!


This all goes back to the city planers they just don't think FAR into the future which is also why we have a freeway problem. Common sense should tell you that we live in a DESERT therefore we should use desert plants for all landscaping instead of plants that require lots of water just because we want a neighborhood to look more pleasing to the eye.


lol, I would say most people do even take the time to appreciate what beauty that is already around them becasue as far as I can see they rather stair into a cell phone/ipod.


Anyway, this state waste A LOT of our money ( Freeway Art, Freeway Projects) and combined with incompetent Government Bureaucrats it only exacerbates the situation.

[jzt83]

City planners have very little to do with implementation of sprinklers in a city.

But golf courses should be limited. They use up so much water, space, and resources it's crazy.

[ferretkona]

You do know that 95% of the states water goes to agriculture right?

[MisterDuke]

Don't blame city planners. Blame developers and idiot property owners. Your local city has absolutely nothing to do with the plants people choose to grow on their property. Cities don't tell people to plant big green lawns. Lawns are an east coast thing. They are completely out of place in southern California. If you want a lawn here, you have to be prepared to pay the price with a huge water bill.

Blaming "incompetent government bureaucrats" is just plain ignorant and lazy. Put the blame where it belongs.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by MisterDuke

Don't blame city planners. Blame developers and idiot property owners. Your local city has absolutely nothing to do with the plants people choose to grow on their property. Cities don't tell people to plant big green lawns. Lawns are an east coast thing. They are completely out of place in southern California. If you want a lawn here, you have to be prepared to pay the price with a huge water bill.

Blaming "incompetent government bureaucrats" is just plain ignorant and lazy. Put the blame where it belongs.

Actually they do. Many cities require a certain percentage of the front yard be grass to keep people from paving over the whole yard and parking 8 cars on it.

[greggd]

The post above is 100% correct. Public/private use is about 5% of all the available water in California. The rest goes to crops and other commercial use.

I think it would be more efficient to recycle that water and runoff water than the publics small %. But they don't want to do that because it will cut into their bottom line and food prices will go up.

[Full-Blooded American]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

You do know that 95% of the states water goes to agriculture right?

By "agriculture" are you including the undocumented gardeners who hose down everybody's sidewalk? BTW, wasn't that supposed to be outlawed? If so they need to issue bulletins on Telemundo, Univision, etc.

[greggd]

Originally Posted by Full-Blooded American

By "agriculture" are you including the undocumented gardeners who hose down everybody's sidewalk? BTW, wasn't that supposed to be outlawed? If so they need to issue bulletins on Telemundo, Univision, etc.

That would be on the Homeowner for both accounts. The employee is hired by the employer and does what their employer tells them to do.

But you know everybody wants Walmart cheap cheap cheap prices.

[straight outta camden]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

You do know that 95% of the states water goes to agriculture right?

What is more scandalous, a lot of the water (especially in the Imperial valley, which really would be a desert if the water was turned off) is used to grow rice and alfalfa. Much of the rice is exported.

By the way, LA doesn't have a desert climate. It has a semi-arid climate. Indio, that's a desert climate.

[BennyPhoenix]

This is funny. Someone comes here from the east and complains about us using too much water. If people didn't come here from the east less water would be used. From what I can tell more than half the people here are transplants from the northeast, mostly new york.