Fairness Is Urged in Conserving Water on the Peninsula

Water conservation has come to the Palos Verdes Peninsula and we are told by the California Water Service that all residents must cut at least 10% of residential water use. We are advised to insert plastic water bags in our toilet tanks to reduce flushing, and water reducers in our shower heads to cut shower consumption. In some quarters, a 300-gallon-per-day limit on all households is now being debated.

In the face of five years of drought, I have no problem complying with this request. Most Californians will likely do their best to conserve water.

But only if there is fairness, equality and justice in water distribution. It is manifestly unfair to ask the peninsula homeowner to cut back on toilet tank and shower use, washer and tap and hose use . . . when just down the road in Rancho Palos Verdes myriad housing developments and giant 495-room hotel and golf complexes are either under construction or on the drawing boards.

We are talking about such housing developments as the Lunada Point Project, the Marufuji Project, the A & H (Watt) Development, the Kajima Project, the Forestall Project and the Barry Hon and Zuckerman projected developments in Subregion 7. These projects are either under construction or on the drafting boards for Planning Commission approval.

These projects are being built “on spec.” That is, they will have no buyers until long after construction is completed. They are not now needed and they may never be needed in view of the deepening recession, lack of financing, depressed housing market and lack of schools and water.

And the giant 495-room hotels with golf courses at Long Point and in Subregion 7 take the cake! I must put bags in my toilet tanks and reducers in my shower heads while Barry Hon and James Monaghan are encouraged to build 500-room hotels and 9- or 18-hole golf courses requiring millions of gallons of water on a daily basis. This is unfair, unjust and a flagrant misuse of water. I am asking all peninsula residents to call the California Water Service and the Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall to demand a moratorium on building and golf course construction until the drought ends.

The directors of the Los Virgenes Municipal Water District in the San Fernando Valley voted a few weeks ago to provide water only to existing customers, at least until the drought ceases. We must insist on the same remedy here on the peninsula.

GAR GOODSON

Palos Verdes Estates