“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this morning proclaimed a statewide drought, warning that California’s water supply is falling dangerously low because of below-average rainfall and court-ordered water restrictions aimed at protecting fish,” according to the L.A. Times.
What will this mean in Orange County? “Orange County gets about half of its water from the Metropolitan Water District, which imports it from the Sierra Nevada (above) and the Colorado River,” according to the O.C. Register.
In Santa Ana what this means is our Mayor, Miguel Pulido, better get with the program and stop trying to encourage luxury condo tower development. We DON’T need to cram thousands of new residents in our city, especially when you consider that our City Clowncil just raised our water rates for the second time in the last ten months. Memo to Pulido and his developer amigo Robert Bisno: STOP the crazed gentrification development schemes!
The drought announcement also makes Pulido and our City Manager, Dave Ream, look stupid for wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars a few years ago to build traffic medians that we didn’t want and didn’t need. Those medians feature grass and trees that waste thousands of gallons of water every year. Nice going their Pulido and Ream.
Pulido and Ream also decided to blow a small fortune to bring back a water fountain in the civic center plaza area last year. Might want to shut that fountain down again!
And now more than ever it is obvious that One Broadway Plaza should NOT be built. We already have a plethora of empty offices in Santa Ana. Why do we need a tower full of additional empty offices? Stop the insanity! Let’s turn that plot into a central park and say adios to Mike Harrah’s crazed high rise tower project.
The housing market has already crashed. Now local politicians need to figure out how to stop wasting water – and they need to put the brakes on any and all high density housing development programs. There just isn’t enough water to go around.
Hey Art –
Look at this way. If rich people overcrowd us and can’t get basics like water, they’ll move out and leave their luxury condos to the rest of us!
SMS
Gary and I are planning to get rid of our grass and plant native ground cover that uses much less water.
I don’t quite get why people insist on having lawn farms in the desert and we should have the choice, but I would urge people who aren’t so crazy about grass to try something different.
As for the medians etc., turf is now available that is made from recycled plastic and rubber, it looks much better and doesn’t take one drop of water.
There are alternatives.
At the last Neighborhood Association meeting, we had a guest speaker from SA Public Works, she spoke about recycling and the need for water conservation. She also brought up her own new xeriscaping design at home, and I asked why the city has a ban on xeriscaping. Artificial turf is illegal too. You will be ticketed by code enforcement if you do either!
The city will loose revenue if we all cut back on our mandated green lawns, especially since they are going to raise the water rates again.
The city also bans using a clothes line as well, where anyone else could see it, among other stupid rules that code enforcement is supposed to enforce.
Talk about a need to return property rights back to the owners! Once again, I guess the individual is too dumb to figure out what is best, we need to be told what’s good for us and everyone else.
In 2001, California passed Senate Bills 610 and 221, also known as the “Show Me The Water” bills. These bills require that for a new development, a plan to deliver water for the next 20 years must be created. However, the catch is that it can be “paper” water, in that the plans can include water delivery that is scheduled to be built, but currently only exists on paper.
I think that including “paper” water is a bad idea, especially now in the face of our water crisis.
See also thid story in the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-thirst7apr07,0,4783063.story
Gary Kephart
Candidate for SMWD Board of Directors
http://kephartforsmwd.com
There is no water shortage.
Ask why the government people have delayed or stopped the water plant in HTB?
Is it true that government control of the water resources is what has caused this projected shortage?
It sure would be nice to offer California farmers a crop that does not need so much water. I just don’t understand why the Governor keep vetoing Chuck DeVore’s Industrial Hemp bill.
I thought Harry Sidhu should have raised this issue in the campaign because I thought Mimi was vulnerable on it.
Oh well.
If you support leting California farmers grow hemp rather than continuing to import it from Canada, I could use some endorsements. If you don’t want to give California Farmers that option, please endorse Diane Harkey.
Andy Favor
73rd Assembly District Candidate
Andy,
I think Harkey could use some medicinal marijuana too! Might mellow her out some…