Good news: Homeowners in Malibu can eliminate 25 percent of the water used by making a few simple and inexpensive changes. Governor Brown has ordered 25 percent statewide cutbacks, 36 percent in Malibu. I wouldn’t mind if the pain was equally shared, but it’s not. The experts say residential use accounts for about 15 percent of total water use, farmers half, and environmentalists use one-third. The math shows if residential use statewide is cut by 25 percent, that’s still only 4 percent of the total. This is a drop in the proverbial bucket.
Governor Brown — thinking small — halted the California Water Project in his first term when the state had only 20 million residents and is now afraid to cut the allocation to politically strong farmers. Yet, Israeli farmers use 10 percent of the water we do in more desert-like conditions. Where is the leadership to implement such huge savings? (Probably focusing on toy trains somewhere.) And, speaking of pet projects, approximately one-third of the state’s water is sent out to sea to protect the Delta smelt, which we now hear aren’t even native, but that’s OK because the powerful environmental lobby also wants water to magically restore their pet trout to streams which dry up except in the wettest years. So far, this project has been a dismal failure. The Governor initially refused to cut this allocation, people know he was just playing politics and many did not cut back.
For Malibu, unlike Venice or Echo Park, apparently someone overlooked the fact that we don’t have tiny lots without yards. Also, many of us were already following previous requests to cut back: not flushing, using buckets to catch shower water, turning the water off when tooth brushing, and catching and storing rain water.
But, Malibu can take the lead, and with little pain. Many of us have powerful sprinklers, but one-third of this water evaporates into the air. These can be replaced with rotating head sprinklers, which use one-third less water. Since 75 percent of residential water use is for ground cover, we save 25 percent of our total water use. Go to www.socalwatersmart.com and help cut Malibu’s water use.
Scott Dittrich