On the same day the state approved mandatory outdoor watering
restrictions with the threat of $500 fines, the Southern
California couple received a letter from their city threatening a
$500 penalty for not watering their brown lawn.
Talk about mixed messages: While Gov. Jerry Brown is warning that
California faces its worst drought since record-keeping began and
regulators have approved fines of up to $500 for wasting water,
some Southern California cities are continuing to issue warnings
and citations to residents who let their lawns go brown.
From the Los Angeles Times, in a column by Patt Morrison:
Lucy Jones is the U.S. Geological Survey seismologist seconded by
Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office to spend a year creating the city’s
first seismic resilience plan. Her grandfather worked for William
Mulholland’s DWP, and her great-great and great grandparents are
buried in a cemetery on the San Andreas fault
Southern Californians have fallen far short of achieving the 20%
voluntary cut in water use sought by Gov. Jerry Brown in the face
of the deep drought afflicting every corner of the state.
“At Big Bear resorts, like other Southern California ski areas,
the drought took a toll. … Fortunately for the town,
summer visitation has been on an upswing, helping to offset lost
business in winter.”
From the California Department of Water Resources (DWR):
“The water level in Castaic Lake in northern Los Angeles County
continues to fall during California’s drought and is now too
low for boaters to use the lake’s west boat ramp.
“The lake provides recreational activities for Southern
California and, as a key component of the State Water Project
(SWP), serves as a reservoir for water that’s distributed to
nearby local communities.”
“When Rosalinda Cardenas was a kid, her parents warned her often:
Stay away from the Pacoima Wash. A few blocks from her home
on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, the concrete-encased flood control
channel was barricaded by rusty chain-link fences, broken glass
and garbage.”
“This harbor community [Avalon] is bracing for water
rationing this summer and even more severe restrictions this fall
in the face of continuing drought, dwindling groundwater and a
rising demand from tourists who are flocking here in numbers not
seen since 2000.”
“Ventura County sheriff’s deputies found a $201-million marijuana
grow operation hidden in canyons north of Lake Piru in the Los
Padres National Forest, authorities said Wednesday.”
“In Congress, seniority still matters. Although lawmakers
can no longer earmark funds for home-state projects, Sen. Barbara
Boxer (D-Calif.) has written into a massive water bill a measure
that promises to bring more money to the ports of Los Angeles and
Long Beach.”
“Instead of the low clouds and chill common to Southern
California around this time, May has brought heat waves and
blistering Santa Ana winds. And that has sparked fires like the
ones in San Diego County that are considered highly unusual for
the month.”
“Brush fires broke out Wednesday in more than half a dozen spots
in northern San Diego County and spread at a dangerous pace as
hot, dry, erratic winds, backed by record temperatures, raked
Southern California for a second day.”
“Nine fires in all were burning an area of more than 14 square
miles as another day of sky-high temperatures and dry winds were
expected Thursday, county officials said.”
“The magnitude of California’s drought hit home with water
managers recently when they considered draining what’s left of
Lake Perris just to get some Inland communities through a dry
spring.”
“The calendar says spring, but the Santa Ana-powered heat wave
roiling the Southland this week and stirring up wildfires, health
alerts and rattlesnakes seems more like weather typically
reserved for late summer and early fall.”
“In a one-page ruling, an Orange County Superior Court judge
last week swept aside environmental challenges to Cadiz Inc.’s
plans to pump groundwater from beneath the Mojave Desert and sell
it to Southern California suburbs.”
“The Orange County Superior Court last week issued rulings
rejecting all six challenges to the environmental review and
approvals by the Santa Margarita Water District and County of San
Bernardino relating to the Cadiz Valley Water Conservation,
Recovery and Storage Project.”
“The Colorado
River System Conservation Program, as the fund is known, will be
seeded with $2 million each from the Southern Nevada Water
Authority, Central Arizona Water Conservation District, the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and Denver
Water.
“Firefighters made significant headway in their efforts to battle
a wildfire that has charred more than 1,600 acres of parched
brush in the San Bernardino National Forest near Rancho
Cucamonga, the U.S. Forest Service said Thursday night.”
