op-ed

The water crisis in California is reaching a peak; if nothing is done to stop this crisis from worsening, this vital resource will slowly but surely completely disappear. The water has been misused for so long that it is nearing the point where it is going to run out soon. California is using the water supply much faster than it can be replenished. There needs to be immediate action taken before it is too late to stop it.
There are some areas of California where there are water laws in place to make sure people conserve water. In Los Angeles they are taking strict action to be sure everyone is following the water laws they have set into place. Such as: no watering lawns on rainy days or between the hours of 9am-4pm due to evaporation, no washing sidewalks, no washing driveways, and no washing cars with a hose that doesn’t have a shut-off nozzle. They have a task force set up specifically to enforce these laws along with a hotline number that citizens can call if they see any cases of misusing water. There are heavy fines set into place for those who break these laws. Those who frequently break these laws have the fines doubled, and if broken enough they will up to quadruple these fines. A different approach is being taken is by Long Beach. They are giving incentives to those who conserve water. They are providing rebates for companies and citizens who install water conserving devices into their homes or buildings. These include water saving shower heads, low flow toilets, washing machines, and irrigation controls. These are the steps that need to be taken throughout the entire state of California.

The problem is that California did not address water as a crisis until much too late. California is a desert, which means it is scarce of water to begin with. California has always needed to import water from places such as Colorado. Conservation is something that should always be a main concern in an area that is forced to import all of its water, but it wasn’t considered a big deal until fairly recently.

California needs to put a conservation plan into place. One model it can build after is Denver. Denver is taking a huge step in the right direction towards water conservation. The main distributor of water to Denver is a company called Denver Water and it has developed a whole water conservation plan. The main goal of this plan is to reduce water usage by 22% by 2016. That would mean a 46 gallon a day reduction from the pre-drought usage of 211 gallon per day. A solid plan based on conserving so water can be provided in the future and droughts will no longer be a crisis. Offering incentives and rewards along with saving money encourages people to conserve water and be aware of the amount they are using daily. Only then will California be on the road towards getting out of this continuous state of drought.
To make this happen you can do a few things. You can sign my petition to restrict the water usage per citizen in California to 200 gallons a day, at www.petitiononline.com /sdh2o. Or another thing is you can write to your local senator or representative about this issue. You could create a petition of your own and send it to you local representatives or to the governor. A very easy thing you could do that takes absolutely no work is just cutting back on your water use yourself and telling people you know that they should do the same.
If nothing is done about this depleting resource it will be completely diminished within lifetime. So we must begin conserving now if we will be able to save the water supply. It is even the simplest things that help. Please do your part!