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In California, Stingy Water Users Are Fined in Drought, While the Rich Soak
- gamesbrainiac 11y agoThis reminds me of a podcast done by NPR on the "Planet Money" program, where you stand to gain more if use more water in a drought. http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/07/22/425392169/episode-640-the-bottom-of-the-well http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/07/22/425392169/episo...
- ck2 11y agoI'm kind of curious why this hasn't ended in violence against the wealthy that abuse water. Not that I am encouraging or condoning it, but it is a very visible and immediate effect. Every 99% person saving a gallon is literally doing so for the 1% to waste it, it's not just on paper, you can go and visibly see it. How exactly does the 1% stay in control like that?
- SQL2219 11y agoInstall urinals in the houses.
- dalke 11y agoIf the city is serious about it, look towards Santa Fe, NM, at http://savewatersantafe.com/rebates/ http://savewatersantafe.com/rebates/ : > The City of Santa Fe Water Division offers a variety of rebates to encourage customers to conserve water by replacing high use fixtures and appliances with efficient technologies. > Indoor Rebates Include: () High-efficiency clothes washer rebates, () High-efficiency toilet (HET) rebates for residential or commercial, (*) Water free urinal rebates Here's the form for the $500 rebate to install water free urinals - http://savewatersantafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/urinal_application_2013.pdf http://savewatersantafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/urina... . As a result of 15-20 years of effort, Santa Fe water consumption is down to about 50 gal/person/day.
- fanf2 11y ago178 gallons per person per day is a huge amount! That's 673 litres, which is well over four times the average water consumption in the UK. http://www.waterwise.org.uk/data/resources/25/Water_factsheet_2012.pdf http://www.waterwise.org.uk/data/resources/25/Water_factshee...
- fallinghawks 11y agoIn Alameda County, "extreme" conservation is 35 gallons per person per day. I stopped watering the lawn last season, we have an water-efficient washing machine and dishwasher, and the shower heads are 1.5gpm. We (two) still flush every time and one person takes some pretty long showers -- and we're doing less than 40 gallons per person per day.
- jinushaun 11y agoMaybe my concept of gallons is off, but I don't see how one person can use 178 gallons each day while "cutting back" on water either. It sounds like a lot of water! The article mentions skipping showers and using less water for washing, but still... 178 gallons?!
- alooPotato 11y agoI thought the solution to this would be simple. Shouldn't we just price water on an exponential scale. I.e. normally water costs $X/gallon, and under some threshold, that price is constant. However, once you exceed that threshold, the price PER GALLON increases at an exponential rate. If the wealthy want 5 pools + water slide, great! They pay a hefty sum and that money gets plowed into better water infrastructure. It would have 1 of 2 effects, the super rich end up using less water (which we want) or they pay HUGE amounts of money that get plowed back into the community. If water is that scarce, this seems reasonable. Why wouldn't this work? We'd have to get some laws passed or we need the 411 different water districts would have to enforce this uniformly?
- escherize 11y ago> "Someone has to say, ‘You can’t have five pools — you can have one pool," Violent solutions should not be the answer to non-violent problems.