This is where I live now:
The land mass on the left is a small (football field-size) island off the edge of Scotts Flat Lake in Nevada County, and it is where I spent by Fourth (a few blissful hours of it, anyway). (Here it is on Google Maps.) It was kind of like Tom Sawyer’s Island, the Disney attraction, but with 100% fewer pirate corpses.
We didn’t attend the parade this year but the weather was perfect.
On this rainy Tuesday, the Sacramento Business Journal reports that Sacramento is the “eighth-thirstiest city with at least 750,000 residents, worse than the fast-growing desert communities of Las Vegas and Tucson, Ariz., at Nos. 9 and 10, respectively.” By the way, Sacramento ranks 12th (just behind Las Vegas and well ahead of Tucson) on the top 100 fastest growing cities in America list (couldn’t find the year, but haven’t these cities slowed down quite a bit? You know, in these tough economic times and all).
Sacramento-area’s average resident uses 250 gallons of water per day, and the annual rainfall is about 20 inches of rain per season. And much of the water from the two rivers is promised outside the Sacramento region.
I don’t know if I am more shocked by the 250 gallons a day statistic or irritated that the water from our two rivers is “promised” away.
The City of Sacramento has the cleanest drinking water of any city in California! It’s time to celebrate by protecting this high-quality resource instead of wasting it needlessly. Let’s all party green together with these helpful tips:
Continue reading “Sacramento’s Drinking Water Rated Highest in the State”
I’m skeptical about Kevin McCarty’s plan to draft an emergency ordinance to require special permits for water bottlers. My views pretty much jive with what the Sac Bee editorialized today. I think most people should be wary of government being able to change the rules and apply them retroactively. And I am wary of government changing the rules every time somebody follows the rules and it leads to an outcome they don’t like. When you do that, it should come with an acknowledgment of failure on the part of the government. Instead, this Nestle deal is spun by folks opposing it, including McCarty, as an attack on our resources by the evil Swiss. (I always knew that neutrality thing was a smokescreen.)
Continue reading “Skeptical about the water bottling ordinance”
In an article posted earlier on Sacramento Press, City Council member Kevin McCarty (rightly) ridicules the City’s watering restrictions. One problem: McCarty voted Aye on the ordinance that created the restrictions.
I appreciate the point he is trying to make in his editorial: the proposed Nestle plant will be overcharging people for billions of gallons of our water, and the City will still be “busting people for flooding sidewalks,” yadda yadda. But if McCarty is successful in fighting the Nestle plant, will he repeal the residential watering ordinance and no longer bust people for flooding the sidewalk?
P.S. Any suggestion to revise the title of this post would be exactly the kind of non-commenty comment up with which I will not put.
The City of Sacramento will be offering a class in water conservation to any local resident who wants more info on “how to use water wisely and comply with new watering rules.” As expected, the Sac Bee commenter krew are all over this one.
I should make sure to point out that I do not advocate wasting water. For example I do not support watering the lawns at parks that have reduced maintenance. One wonders whether lesson #1 in the workshop is “have your yard annexed as a City park”…
Water Conservation Educational Workshop
August 29, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
City of Sacramento Water Conservation Office
2260 Glen Ellen Circle
Sacramento, CA 95822
Workshop details (PDF)
The Sac Bee has a new “photo gallery” solicitation on the Web site — a “community reporting project,” they’re calling it — asking folks to send in photos (registration required to look at the photos) of “the city’s biggest water wasters.”
Include a brief description of the date and time the photo was taken and where it was taken, including street address and nearest cross street.
Sounds an awful lot like the Bee wants us to rat out our neighbors. I’m not sure where to start with this, but I think I’ll start with this: breaking the city’s watering rules is not synonymous with “wasting” water. One could easily follow the letter of the law in a wasteful way, just as one could water on off-days in a conservationist way.
I wanted to bring up a few points about the City’s new martial law declaration with respect to water use. First, you can be cited and fined for “leaky or faulty water lines, hoses, fixtures or other water using or distributing devices,” so make sure to maintain all your sprinklers. Second, the City itself is exempt from all the restrictions. And keep in mind these restrictions are in place now, when we’ve had unseasonable precipitation and mild temperatures; the City will enact even more stringent restrictions if we get to an actual water shortage situation.
Read the City’s ordinance (PDF)
(Hat tip to Chris Shannon of North Sac Beat)
The Sac Rag 