According to MCWD, “Water demand in Mammoth triples when the outdoor watering season commences.”
The severe drought in California prompted the State to set down water conservation rules and to require county and city jurisdictions to adopt their own plans.
Mammoth Community Water District continues to ask customers to conform to Revised Level 1 Water Restrictions. These rules say even numbered addresses should irrigate on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Odd numbered addresses irrigate on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Irrigation is prohibited between 10 am and 7pm. No variances for new lawns.
Over filling of swimming pools and spas is prohibited. Washing of hard surfaces is prohibited. Leaks must be repaired and water may not pool up on hard surfaces. All of the details are available on the Water District website – www.mcwd.dst.ca.us. Earlier this year, the Water Board did adopt an ordinance which would allow additional prohibitions if needed.
Inyo Public Works Director Clint Quilter recently held public meetings in Independence and Lone Pine to explain conservation rules. He said he came up with an allowable alternative plan that is “responsible yet acknowledges the investment in landscaping.”
The rules say no watering between 9am and 5pm, the necessity to repair any leaks in a reasonable time, no use of potable water for construction unless there is no alternative, no flushing of fire hydrants except for health and safety reasons. Quilter said there would be significant penalties to Inyo if the County did nothing.
He said, “We’re trying to meet regulations while taking into account the unique situation of the Owens Valley.” He said he does not anticipate law enforcement will police water use.
Quilter mentioned four other mandatory regulations for water systems – not washing down driveways, irrigating but no flooding, using a hose shut-off for washing a car or watering.
The City of Bishop adopted eight rules to reduce water use by 20%. They are posted on the City website and include:
No outdoor irrigation except between 5pm and 9am; no irrigation of outdoor landscaping so that water runs off the property; no washing vehicles unless the hose is fitted with a shut-off nozzle; no washing driveways, sidewalks and parking areas; no decorative water features unless there is recirculation; no water waste caused by easily correctable leaks, breaks, or malfunctions; no use of potable water for construction purpose; no hydrant flushing except when required for public health and safety.
The Bishop press release says the City may allow exceptions to some of these measures in some cases. Check it out at www.ca-bishop.us.
Discover more from Sierra Wave: Eastern Sierra News - The Community's News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Throughout the 1990’s and up until recently, in my conversations with “some” Bishop locals, I’ve heard many tell me that they used as much water as possible, to spite the Department of Water & Power, and southern California citizens.
How many of us are actually proud of our lawns reflecting the severe drought, oh wait? I can see with my own eyes how 80% of homeowners and renters have a business as usual approach, in a time when the most precious resource is becoming scarce in a place that has been known as Payahuupu (the valley where water flows continuously) for thousands of years.. yes drought is a natural condition, but people’s water consumption at this current demand, has yet to see the full repercussion and cost of what today’s convenience is to our kids future.
A drop of water saved in the East Side is a drop of water that fills the siphon to L.A. Keep L.A. green!!!
…and sometimes we need true leaders to lead the way…
At least I can count on you to stay home and keep score, while I’m out on the front lines…
Ken Warner,
The fact that the people of Owens are the victim of waste and exploitation does not exempt them from consequences or the responsibility for change.
Mongo the Idiot
I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.
Booker T. Washington
http://www.postperiodical.com/scientists-warn-decades-long-megadrought/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=scientists-warn-decades-long-megadrought&google_editors_picks=true
KW
Try, just try, to keep things civil . Alluding/Guessing to another’s limitations is an asocial activity, not a joke and besides what does DWP do that limits any of our own personal responses to this 3rd year drought . As far as the Owens Valley is concerned there is this drought and there is also the DWP desperate despicable Operations. Ken, Mongo ,Philip and Many here in the OV all agree that DWP literally sucks. I for one do not want to mimic the DWP in sucking the Owens Valley dry. So please consider and keep sacred for Mongo, myself , Yourself and every Neighbor here in the Eastern Sierra in this Forum a place for a respectable exchange of ideas and solutions and remind me if I stray away from this ideal . The Wave and the Valley and the issues are nurtured with these discussions. Lets contribute our best thoughts and ideas, support the Wave and support our concerns for the OV
Mongo: The whole East Side has been practicing strict water conservation for the last hundred years using the principle of, “There it is, take it.” We’ve saved the Earth so good that Los Angeles has grown from one hundred thousand people to around nine million people in that same hundred years.
If that’s not good enough then I guess you really are an idiot.
“the publicity value in making Inyo the most residentially water efficient county in America.”
You are a troll for LADWP aren’t you? To lay the blame on the East Side is so off the mark I have trouble finding words to characterize your assertion.
Let Los Angeles lead the way to conservation. There’s less than thirty five thousand people in both Inyo and Mono counties. That’s less than the crowd at one of their stupid football or baseball games or the number of people that go to one of their malls on a holiday.
You are attacking exactly the wrong people — why?
Ken,
Thank you for the opportunity to directly respond to your concerns.
I said…
“the publicity value in making Inyo the most residentially water efficient county in America.”
* I make this suggestion because to me it is the high road and the most effective road to take. I believe that Owens Valley has been raped and held hostage at the cost of climate change and damage to our ecosystem. Fighting does not seem to have brought about any repair to the damage that has been done. I believe the most effective approach is that of passive yet proactive action. LA’s people would be embarrassed by this situation if they knew what was going on. I believe publicity, education, and action are the roads to success. My heros are Marin Luther King, Dali Lama, Booker T Washington, Mother Theresa and other great leaders who brought change and ended injustice in this way.
You are a troll for LADWP aren’t you?
*I am not affiliated with any organization, I am acting independently. The thoughts I express are my own.
To lay the blame on the East Side is so off the mark I have trouble finding words to characterize your assertion.
*I lay no blame and make no assertion other than there are solutions to these problems that are being ignored. Please enlighten me to any statements I made that blame Inyo.
Let Los Angeles lead the way to conservation. There’s less than thirty five thousand people in both Inyo and Mono counties. That’s less than the crowd at one of their stupid football or baseball games or the number of people that go to one of their malls on a holiday.
*i believe it could be easier to organize a stadium full of people in a grass roots conservation strategy than to get LA on board. Here conservation would be measurable and have a tremendously strong impact publicity wise. Also, Inyo is possibly the most water conscious county in the nation. People are passionate about the issue and potentially more willing to take action.
You are attacking exactly the wrong people — why?
*From my perspective I see nothing in my statements that resembles an attack on Inyo. I merely have made suggestions in a forum of open discussion. Absolutely nothing in my statements is intended as an attack or slander in any way. First and foremost, I love the land and I love Inyo. Please excuse me if I misspoke of was overly ambiguous in my statements.
*Frankly, the notion that DWP would ask Inyoites to conserve water is openly insulting. I am passionate about these issues and would love to be part of the change. I think LA water usage is embarrassing I also believe DWP wants to sell as much water as possible.
And sincerely, thank you for your questions. I hope we can continue, the conversation.
I remain open to your thoughts and am willing to change mine as things develop.
Mongo
Swimming pools are just fun to attack because we want to slap down the privileged people who “worked” extra hard to get them.
Whatever you do, don’t look at using fresh water to flush toilets. You see when we do this the poop gets rinsed off for the ride to treatment and that precious untapped supply of grey water is protected from efficiency.
I hear there are 20,000,000 people in So Cal, if they flush three times a day each, that’s 60,000,000 flushes a day, that’s 21,900,000,000 flushes a year. What would happen to Owens lake if you flushed 21,900,000,000 toilets into it every year? We’d have a different kind of sh@t storm and mitigation down there, that’s for sure.
We’ve got to put our heads together and find ways to overcome my problem.
My name is Mongo, and I am an idiot.
You know what to do with your thumbs…
Mongo, you make more sense than 99% of the rest of the commentariat, including myself. We need more idiots.
In plain English…
It would be inexpensive and easy to install individual residential waste water capture systems that would supply lightly used greywater to flush toilets. It’s 9 AM and I’ve already flushed my toilet twice. A low flow toilet uses 1.6 galons per flush. I have single handedly wasted 3.2 galons of water and the day is barely started. Multiply this use by the population of the Metropolitan Water District, I believe the volume of the wasted water would be astounding.
A typical LA lawn uses 30 galons of fresh water per square foot per year. This use multiplied by the total square feet of lawn in the Metropolitan Water District would be astounding.
The only emergency we face in this water issue is that of addressing our own greed, irresponsibility, ignorance, and laziness.
I agree with Quilter in that Inyo should be the leader in conservation. Inyo is at the source of the cause and I believe we may have an opportunity to be an effective example and source of a solution. I disagree with the recommendations about conservation because they seem weak compared to the real waste that is occurring.
I would like to suggest that those already involved in these issues consider the publicity value in making Inyo the most residentially water efficient county in America.
A note on swimming pools.
I hope the half dozen pools in LP and Indy are available to fire fighters, this way any physical cost or perceived waste would be more than off set by the benefit of having fresh water at the ready in a disaster.
Mongo
What have you got to loose by being open to ideas and discussion on the subject?
What have you got to loose by contributing ideas or rebuttals to the discussion?
Don’t leave us to our assumptions, please chime in…
Conservation is the topic of this thread. Do you feel it is unfair for Owens to be asked to conserve? Do you feel it’s unnecessary for LA to conserve? Are my suggestions on waste wrong? Do you have data to share? We’ll never know unless you tell us.
Put it in words mr/ mrs thumbs down. What makes Mongo so freakishly stupid?
May I chime in please? I mean, don’t mind if I do..
And that is just flushing our toilets, but I don’t understand if someone is against your comment enough to give you a thumbs down, they should explain themselves.. this is a serious issue, and the more we stay in our own bubble of ignorance the worst off we will be.
I think your suggestions on waste are appropriate, nothing about our lifestyle should be sacred or unchangeable when it takes away ecology and opportunity for generations after us.. but of course we “people” are just a pawn in the scheme of things, industry is the biggest water consumer, and until we get money out of politics we the people will never be able to beat out the corporate lobbyist’s that have economic relevance to natural resources..
I think some people are just “echo chambers” and they don’t have a better idea, but don’t want their identity questioned as well hence the thumbs down is the best they got.
How about we not wait for somebody to lead, and we embrace the most important part of FREEDOM, the FREEDOM TO BE RESPONSIBLE to what is going on with our MotherEarth!
Yes open discussion is needed, along with the acknowledgement of facts and acceptance on where we all sit in the facts around water consumption.
Thanks Mongo.
Gotta say it…The day I get on “Google Earth” and look into the Los Angeles area…when I see those thousands of big swimming pools in people’s yards …and if they are dry….THAT is when I’ll cut back on water,let my truck get dirty and allow my lawn dry up and blow away.
Gotta say too…
Been watching the water . Been watching and calling out the DWP. Don’t want my well to go dry in this Bishop Cone . Don’t want any locale in the Owens Valley, not any portion of it, to be the next mitigated DWP project. I watch idiots, do the call out , myself included, shaving, hot water running nearly every morning out the tap. I need to develop a better water wise personal responsibility with water and maybe the benefit will be a personable responsibility that will rub off on the other aspects of life.
This isn’t about what other people do, this is about what I and every individual does as responsible and evolved Humans do at the source of the waters .
Hey WD about a shift to a paradigm of a individual response to resolve global and local vital issues . I have seen this response from you in many issues and posts on the Wave. Think a bit WD and share more thoughts about the truck, the lawn, the Earth . Share that wisdom of your years experience and afterthought , the share of a contribution to the synergy to resolve these difficult challenges that nature, the Earth, affords and requires of us all
Aww man, well Wayne at least you know I am taking it upon myself to not water my lawn (front yard and backyard), in effort to save.. I could care less about some social norm about keeping a nice green lawn, I think seeing someone that is willing to sacrifice that nice green lawn in effort to conserve water is a more pleasant sight to see rather then a big green lawn that doesn’t get utilized..
DWP is soylent brown for Owens, soylent green for LA. I don’t know what they do to the water, the stuff that comes out of my faucet in Indy tastes good, the stuff in LA, not good at all; however, my mommy’s 20,000 sq ft lawn in LA likes it!
20,000 x 30 gal per sq ft annual use = 600,000 galons per year ( that’s one house people).
Yea, I’ll wash the car with a shut off nozzle, no problem…
“Quilter said there would be significant penalties to Inyo if the County did nothing.”
Where is the lobby that protects Inyo from financial loss and environmental damages as caused by the virtually uncompensated extraction of our most valuable resource? How much is the fine for draining 100 square mile Owens lake? I say it should be double what it would cost to correct the problem.
This appears to be a politically motivated bullying maneuver, just like solar panels. The threats and action are far more aggressive than that I see in LA. Follow the money to he top and you’ll see uber privelidged LA politicians soaking cigars at the club while us Owenyo serfs bow and obey. A smart PR firm from outside the utility would mitigate your worse liability DWP; your horrible reputation and your idiotic propensity to punish your supplier and it’s residency.
Somebody get me an ice pick, I gotta kill a few more brain cells so it won’t hurt when I ring out my washcloth to get a drink of water. What we are doing does not work! Owens does not have enough water to quench the thirst of So Cal’s 20,000,000 and growing population.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-calif-population-20140501-story.html
Out here in the middle of nowhere, street addresses are wonky.
Drought or no drought, who would wash a car WITHOUT a shut off nozzle ? Ever since I saw the movie “Soylent Green” as a kid, I try not to be wasteful . What the DWP SHOULD do…is build a HUGE de-salinization plant on the Santa Monica coast, and reverse the flow in the aqueduct to return water to the Owens Valley. Wishful thinkin’, huh.
R. O. B.
More chance of a pipe to pump SoCal sewage into Owens Lake.
Do people understand that DWP is in charge of policing themselves? I thought I saw a pussy cat, I did! I did!
and after an lengthy internal investigation they’ve come to the conclusion policing themselves works very much in their favor