As you have probably heard, California has been dealing with very dry conditions.

The state has just issued new fines for wasting water.

Today's newspaper had a cartoon in the subject.

It shows a cop drawing down on a guy carrying a rifle.

The cop asks "is that a water gun?"

The guy goes, no it's a real gun.

The cop responds "No problem then. Carry on"

LOL...

Do they have special water police like San Antonio/Bexar Co. does?

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Can my S&W Mdl 10 shoot +P

Did you hear about the resident of some town in CA is being threatened with a lawsuit because his yard is brown. Even the lawn of the State House is brown. The Governor asked EVERYBODY to save water, but they don't want to the property values to drop from having brown lawns.

Incidentally, SC was declared a disaster area because TOO MUCH rain rotted the crops in the field. Can't this kinda balance out.

rwsmith, it is even stupider than that. My wife sent me links to a couple of news stories about people getting code violation tickets for letting their lawns get brown, because they are conserving water. If that happened to me, after demonstrating how I put the "gator" in litigator, I'd be working on recalling the elected officials who have allowed such enforcement activities. That's not a bowl of stupid - it's the whole buffet.

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NHI, 10-8.

The state is in fact fining people $500 a day for over watering, and homeowners associations were in fact fining homeowners at the same time because the lawns were brown. Speaking of brown, Gov. Brown just signed a law saying that can't happen anymore. And who would buy a house where a homeowner association bunch of busy bodies tell you want you can't plant, colors you cant paint, and no boats or RVs in the drive ways?

No HOA here, but lots of brown lawns.

But there are people who seem to have not cut back at all.

On our last two water bills, the usage was down 20%+ from last year so I think I'm OK.

Plus I don't even own a water gun.

Another thing I find aggravating is when they tell you to cut back water usage, and people do so, and then they say they need to raise water rates because revenue to the water department is down.

Well, duh...

What ever happened to reducing expenses when you have to deliver less of your product?

You are absolutely right. They ask for sacrifices, we do it, then OOPS!, revenue is down and so they punish us for being responsible.

Is this the worst it's ever been? Any plans if the drought goes on for years?

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SOS USA

'Sposed to rain hard this winter. Hope for rain, that's the Official Plan.

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I used to be disgusted..

Some association tried that here to make a guy keep grass in front of his home when he wanted desert landscaping. Guy's lawyer trotted out an old and obscure law that no water saving measure can be considered illegal or subject to private litigation. When that popped up on the local news no HOA reps were available for comment anywhere in the Valley.

There was talk in Sacramento about putting water meters on privately owned wells. That way to charge for using their own water. Haven't heard any more about that but keep it in mind, politicians can't be trusted.

Everything's brown around me as well. Oh wait.....I live in the desert so that is just dirt and rocks out there. Whew....I was worried there for a minute.

The Sil;icon Valley millionaires are buying the old houses in my neighborhood, tearing them down, and building their McMansions. Green lawns go with their McMansions. When I walk up the street, I see sprinklers going for hours to keep their lawns green. I guess when we are completely out of water, these millionaires will be watering their lawns with Perrier.

Everything is green here.. but, I live in God's Country!!

The difference between say a gun maker and a water/ oil/ power plant is the amount of infrastructure which needs to be maintained and kept in full service, rather than being shuttered for cost savings.
Just because we use less electricity or water does not mean they run less water pressure, or the pipeline will be smaller or less expensive. All that line is still there, and it all still is in full service and still needs maintenance. S&W can shut down for a month in the summer, and the costs go down substantially for that month.
Even if you don't use a lot of electricity or water.... the supply line is still there, able to deliver 24/7.

What ever happened to "desalinization plants".I think this was a topic over 30yrs ago.You take sea water and make it suitable for drinking or whatever.On the other hand,instead of hearing about the oceans rising we would be warned of the oceans drying up.

Don't know what your thoughts are but I think HOA's were created as a preschool for political wannabes.The HOA where I live tried the same BS as others during a drought.Someone must have given them a rude awakening at a board meeting because they have since changed their tune.It always amazed me how reelection trumps ideology.

I heard from Al Gore that global wetting is on it's way.

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

Conservation = higher prices for what you are trying to conserve.

Been there.Done it. Got the t-shirt, bumper sticker and the BILL.

Now I do find it funny that there is a lack of water in a state with hundreds of miles of Pacific Coastline.

There are a few desalination plants in California -- but small ones.

The energy required to run the plants makes the water expensive.

California needs to build more dams or make the current dams higher to store more water. But that has been politically impossible for years.

Yup...

Drought buster patrols the streets of Los Angeles

Are all the fruits turning into prunes and raisins?

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

There was a plan floated (and quickly sunk) to run a pipeline from Lake Superior to California. Canada was not impressed. MN was not impressed. We see how well selling water rights to California has worked for the western states. You live in a semi arid area with few water sources close. Cut out the pools, restrict lawn watering and driveway washing, shower with a friend, limit home building permits to match resources, see the play "Urine" to view life with water shortages. The supply is limited. Even in MN, land or 10,000 lakes, we have areas with shortages of drinking water.

We haven't had much of a problem having water.
People are often unaware that the Smokies have the highest annual rainfall in the southeastern United States, about 58 to 60 inches, greater even than Florida's Everglades, which sees about 54 inches a year. But most of this rain is barely perceptible, some call it "misting rain".. locals just call it "Smoky"...

Who are you gonna call ?-DROUGHTBUSTERS!
Seriously, for years they have built on deserts and near deserts, areas with inadequate rainfall and no other sources-that's why they have those fires- tapped fossil water, etc. and now they are weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth.

I'm a Knoxville native, lived in Chattanooga, and spent summers in Sevierville and Kona, North Carolina after we moved to Louisville.

I remember the misty rain fondly, and miss it a lot. The smell of the mist on hemlocks and rhododendron...

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Oh well, what the hell.

Never have I had a lawn that was this green and in need of a mowing this late in the summer, Gardens and crop's look amazing and the weather man say's rain for the week end, **** winter followed by a great summer!

Don't you guys have an epic drought every summer?

You won't trim the dead underbrush, and then cry about wildfires. I don't get it.

Never mind it being politically impossible, if less rain is falling in the mountains than we drink and wash with, you can build the dam as high as you want, there still won't be enough.

This is the issue on the Colorado right now. Some would say if the dams were higher we could make it through a longer drought. True, but if the reduction in rainfall is effectively permanent, i.e., more than your lifetime, you cannot build a dam big enough to get by it. If the climate is going through a drier phase lasting about 200 years or so, at best parts of the Western US will have to learn how to get by with a lot less water for yards and recreation. At worst, the people will just have to move.

Don't get any funny ideas that us stupid humans are in charge when Mother Nature really gets rolling. Many think we are, but it is a conceit I cannot share.

It's happened before,around 1000 years ago.The people (Anasazi) just seem to have vanished.Maybe we are smarter ?

You very funny man.

A motor home or trailer has a black water (sewage) system and a gray water (showering, dishwashing, tooth brushing) system. It's a sin to flush clean (maybe soapy) water into a sewer. We could water our lawns and plants with the water that isn't p***ed away. All we need is a reason (taxes, zoning) to do the extra plumbing in homes and businesses.
(Just a thought).
Buzz (cockerpoodle)

I've lived in California for 45 years.

And from experience I can say that in a few years we will be having excess rainfall and floods.

In 2010 and 2011 we had about 30% above normal rainfall.

Then 2012 and 2013 were about 20% below.

And then 2014 came in at about 1/2 of normal.

And here we are in a drought.

The cycle will reverse at some point.

No need to slit our wrists yet.

Dave

You need to come out here and see the terrain where these wildfires are taking place. We are not talking about rolling hills and valleys but some seriously steep terrain that a 4x4 can't travel and a lot of it. All in 100plus degree weather. Check out the acreage that has been burned recently then think about how you would go about clearing the underbrush on that much land. The State Fire Marshall would really be interested in your ideas.
There is a state law that the Forrest Service or a fire dept. can conscript passers by to fight a fire if needed. This happened to me twice in the 1970's. It quickly dispelled the idea that firefighting was a career for me. It's extremely hard work fit for really strong young people in great shape. You really have to be a stud or a studdette (if that's really a word) to do it.

Sorry for the rant but I've been to back east and some of your mountainous terrain does not compare with the Sierras out here.

My understanding is that it's not rainfall that waters California, but snow pack. How has that been the last few years? I know that the Rockies are way down, hence the issues with the Colorado.

Unlike many parts of the country that get some rain year around, central California gets virtually all the rain in November through April. May through September are dry, even in a normal years.

Hence the need for dams and reservoirs.

So the runoff from rain in the mountains above the dams is saved in the reservoirs. Rain in the valleys below cut down on irrigation at the time of the rain, but runoff goes to the Pacific.

The snow pack is just one more place to save water for the summer. But if there isn't any precipitation, then there isn't much snow pack.

There are some species of game and commercial fish, such as Salmon, that spawn in California rivers so we have to keep some water flow in the rivers even in drought years.