Everyone Must Conserve Water Now

By Terrence Mason

I returned home at 7:30 p.m. two Fridays ago, after filling my car’s gas tank at $5 per gallon.

When I got home, my neighbor had his lawn sprinklers going full blast in spite of the city’s long-published “prohibitions” against watering lawns except before 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m. and only on Mondays, Thursdays or Saturdays, and for no more than 10 minutes per day. I know he wasn’t unaware that his sprinklers were on because he has to turn them on manually — and he was sitting on his front porch watching the cascades of precious drinkable water with his wife and their 9-month-old daughter.

The water show continued for at least the next 30 minutes after I returned home. I have no idea how long it lasted before I got home. I wanted so much to take a picture of them so the daughter can appreciate what a green year-round lawn her parents had 18 years from now, when she is paying more than $5 per gallon for water. This past Friday evening, he repeated the ritual all over again, and for the past two Sundays, in the blazing heat of the mid-afternoon, he watered his front and back lawns with a hose for almost an hour before washing the family vehicles and hosing down his driveway.

This past Tuesday and Wednesday, upon returning home, I observed the visiting father of another neighbor, who just had his first child four weeks ago, hand watering his lawn for about an hour each consecutive day. Obviously, the folks visiting from back in Michigan don’t appreciate that we in Southern California have always lived in a natural desert environment, and it’s clear that the “prohibitions” that Long Beach has proactively “established” are simply nothing more than an illusion.

Maybe my neighbors weren’t aware that Gov. Schwarzenegger less than three weeks ago declared a statewide drought even though it was all over the news. I do know that they are well aware that the city of Long Beach has had outdoor watering “prohibitions” in effect for approximately nine months now because notices are contained in their monthly water and gas bills, as well as the local newspapers and on bus shelter ads.

The city has specifically sent both of their homes at least one letter reminding them of the “prohibitions” based upon other neighbors’ complaints the city about their families’ watering front lawns for up to an hour at a time in the heat of midafternoon. I’m fairly certain my neighbors are literate and of at least average intelligence because they both attended the most expensive college in Southern California and love to boast about it.

What I want to know is why do I and other residents bother to abide by local water prohibitions and attempt to restrict our use of water when others like my neighbors negate our actions with impunity? What is a “prohibition” if there are no sanctions for violating it, even on a repeated basis?

Why doesn’t the city of Long Beach — and the State of California — with major budget deficits confronting each, get serious about protecting our most valuable limited resource, without which (unlike petroleum) human beings cannot survive? Why doesn’t Long Beach put some teeth in its “prohibitions” like progressively-increased fines for repeat violators? Why doesn’t the Long Beach Water Department impose a steep surcharge on those households that exceed a threshold amount of water in a particular month? When will the city begin offering financial incentives to homeowners to replace their water-guzzling lawns with native plants and xeriscapes? What about a concept as simple as political campaign-type yard signs that announce, “We’re in a drought. Don’t pour our children’s water into your dirt,”?

With the ominous predictions that have existed for quite some time about the current and future availability of water in California, I am at a loss to explain the paucity of response to the pending drought shown both by my neighbors and by political representatives at every level.

I hope each of you has the foresight to step forward to implement changes now to protect the future availability of our water.

Terrence Mason lives in the Los Altos neighborhood.