CV - Water conservation? (Orange, Hesperia: city hall, hotel, houses)

[xeric]

Hello all. I spent a week in Palm Springs in late March and really liked it. I took several side trips to Joshua Tree, Anza-Borrego, and the mountains SW of Palm Desert. The scenery is spectacular and I liked the small size of the cities. Since I love heat and deserts, I was thinking that it might be a good area for me to move to (someday in the far distant future).

My question: Is there a culture of water conservation there? I'm totally fed up with the Colorado Front Range attitude that every square inch of your yard has to be covered with Kentucky bluegrass, and the corresponding lack of any sort of regional landscaping style. Now that our short drought of 2002 is over people more people seem to be taking out xeriscaping (and replacing it with bluegrass) then the other way around.

I did a lot of walking around Palm Springs and I'd say that only about a third of the houses in the neighborhoods I passed through had lawn in the front yard. But I've read other posts on the web that imply that the CV has one of the highest rates of residential water usage for outdoor landscaping (70 to 75% of total household water usage) in the country. There's no way that the CV cities can be made to look like the NE or MW (which is a a boon to those of us who like regional differences), but how do people feel about water conservation and the appeal of desert landscaping there? I'm looking forward to some residents' perspectives.

[Twinkle Toes]

We use a lot of water in the desert. Have you noticed every hotel, country club, restaurant, shopping center, golf course, etc. has some sort of water feature? Fountains, pools, spas, waterfalls. There is a lot of grass in the CV, but there is also some xeriscape as well. It all depends on your personal preference. But, no, this area is not real big on water conservation. You hear it talked about all the time, but nobody really does anything in furtherance of conservation.

[Donn2390]

I'm in the high desert, and water conservation is very big, as it is getting to be all over So Calif. Even LA is going that way, conserve water of be fined. There is and will be a drought this summer.
Water is very valuable and expensive in the desert, so much so that the water district will pay homeowners so much a sq ft to remove their grass..
We have a 1/2 acre lot, with no grass at all, all xeriscape. A large % of homes in the desert are like that...
I came from Orange county, where the monthly connection fee was like $15 dollars a month before you turn on the tap. Here it is $45 monthly connection fee before you turn on the tap.. Very expensive....
Drought Conditions Hit Calif. Earlier Than Usual

[xeric]

Originally Posted by Twinkle Toes

We use a lot of water in the desert. Have you noticed every hotel, country club, restaurant, shopping center, golf course, etc. has some sort of water feature? Fountains, pools, spas, waterfalls. There is a lot of grass in the CV, but there is also some xeriscape as well. It all depends on your personal preference. But, no, this area is not real big on water conservation. You hear it talked about all the time, but nobody really does anything in furtherance of conservation.

Well I did notice a lot of "swampy" looking areas coming in on the airplane. I tend to look at residences as more of a barometer of people's attitudes, but the businesses/resorts/etc. are certainly a factor as well.

[Twinkle Toes]

Originally Posted by xeric

Well I did notice a lot of "swampy" looking areas coming in on the airplane. I tend to look at residences as more of a barometer of people's attitudes, but the businesses/resorts/etc. are certainly a factor as well.

If you flew into Palm Springs, no doubt you saw the huge fountain in front of the airport.

[Donn2390]

Water features are water savers..! We just had a huge water feature put in our back yard as part of a re-landscaping project. We expect to save water over having to water grass. The foutains and waterfalls do NOT use much water, it's the same water being recirculated over and over again.
Watering grass is a different animal. to keep grass green in the desert, you have to water the Hell out of it. That is very wasteful, water features are not.
As far as forced Conservation, many cities will fine you for washing down your driveway, washing your car, or not following strick watering regulations.
There was a story in the VV paper yesterday about the city of Adlanto just putting in a $24k pond in the front of City Hall... to teach WATER CONSERVATION...! Quoted from the story..
ADELANTO • The city is fielding calls from residents concerned over the construction of a $24,000 pond and cactus garden outside City Hall meant to teach residents how to create a landscape that's as beautiful as it is eco-friendly.

"The city wants to lead by example and promote conservation and show people that you can have a variety of water-conserving yards - it doesn't just have to be cactus and dirt," said Belen Cordero, water conservation specialist for Adelanto.

Since construction on the conservation garden began in early March, city workers have received many calls from residents angry about the city wasting money and water.

However, the new landscape actually saves water - tens of thousands of gallons of it.

When City Hall was surrounded by green grass, the city was wasting about 96,000 gallons of water per month, Cordero said. The new pond, which holds 3,000 gallons of water and is about 21 feet by 16 feet, will waste only 30 to 40 gallons per month, said Jesse Sanvoval, the pond's designer.

"The water just circulates, so there's not any wasted water except through evaporation," said Sanvoval, owner of Exterior Designs Custom Landscape in Hesperia."
So yes, you will see water features and ponds, but conservation is very much on the front burner, and is going to get much stronger as we heard into summer...

[Twinkle Toes]

I think the OP was asking about the low desert. Donn is in the high desert, I am in the low desert.

[Donn2390]

Originally Posted by Twinkle Toes

I think the OP was asking about the low desert. Donn is in the high desert, I am in the low desert.

The high desert gets their water from the same place as the low desert, and the extreme water crisis has been declared a state wide emergency by the Governor.
The Palm Springs area is under emergency conditions. How could that have escaped anyone living in California, and especially someone living in the desert?
AOL Search

This will direct you to site after site telling about the water emergency and what the Palm Springs area, and the rest of the state are doing to try to save every drop...
Didn't come to argue, but I'm amazed you can live where you do and not be aware of the desperate situation.

If you are doing as your post indicates and using a lot of water, it's time to educate yourself on the situation and start conserving..

[Twinkle Toes]

Well, we do have grass in the front and back yards, so it does need watering. It's not watered excessively. But overall, I try to do what I can.

[4beanie]

We were in the Palm springs area in Feb. We were shocked at the amount of lawn area there. There was lawn on the outside of walled neighbor hoods and in the center divider of the roads. This is all lawn that nobody uses. We live in Northern Ca. where we get plenty of rain and you would think have plenty of water. We are always being told to watch our water usage. We live by lake Oroville (one of Ca. water projects) last year they had to close the lake to recreation due to how low the water was. This water goes to So Cal I really don't mind water going there for crops and drinking water, but for lawns that arn't even in someones yard just for looks. It kinda pissed me off.