Drop that hose, you water waster

Two times in two days last week, I saw some locals doing something

that I believe should be a crime but is not.

On the first sunny day, I was driving my car and noticed a

shopkeeper hosing down the sidewalk in front of his store. Although

it may seem hard to believe, I kept my big mouth shut. I said

nothing, even though my blood began to boil.

On the second day, a homeowner was hosing down his driveway.

Believing that seeing the second incident was a make-up

opportunity for the first, I yelled out of my car, “Please stop

wasting water that way!”

Hey, I’m a classy guy.

There aren’t many issues that we should be more concerned about

than the conservation of water. We live in a desert and the

protection of our most precious natural resource should be a daily

habit for all of us.

Without water, there is no life.

Unfortunately, the recent storm and the recent wet winter have

fooled some people in to thinking that we’ve got water to waste when

nothing could be further from the truth.

The Mesa Consolidated Water District gets consistently high marks

for the quality of the water it provides to us. The last thing we

should be doing is splashing it down on the sidewalk when a good

broom will do the job.

From a recent press release, I learned that the water district

offers several Water Use Efficiency Programs at no cost to assist

customers with reducing water usage and saving money on water bills.

One of the free services is mesa’s Residential Survey Program.

This will provide you with an experienced conservation specialist who

will come to your home to identify ways to lower water consumption

where you live, including landscaping, irrigation and indoor plumbing

systems.

There are also several rebate programs to assist you with the cost

of replacing inefficient indoor and outdoor water fixtures with more

efficient ones. Those fixtures include washing machines, toilets and

irrigation timers.

The water district also offers landscaping classes, online classes

and its Landscape Certification Program. It promotes water-wise

gardening with its demonstration garden located at the district

offices, where you’ll see a wide variety of attractive and

water-efficient, “California-friendly” plants.

“Mesa offers these excellent programs to help customers reduce

their water use and save money,” said Paul Shoenberger, the

district’s board president.

If you lived in California in 1977, you’ll remember what I am

about to impart. If you did not live here at that time, try to

understand. That year was California’s worst drought since formal

records were kept.

Watering your lawn got you in trouble. There was no lawn watering

in 1977.

In 1977, we were not always flushing our toilets. The saying at

the time was: “If it’s brown, flush it down; if it’s yellow, let it

mellow.” Sorry to be so graphic, but it is important to paint an

accurate picture.

Also at home, we were taking Navy showers. That’s when you turn on

the shower to get wet, turn it off to soap and then turn it back on

to rinse.

In 1977, even the best restaurants were serving their meals on

paper plates.

Right now, you don’t have to limit your lawn-watering. But

replanting drought-resistant plants always helps.

And about those paper plates ... my daughter does the dishes in

our house and I’m sure that although she’d never want a drought, the

concept of eating on paper plates and then tossing them out would

have a lot of appeal.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and a freelance writer.

Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at

(714) 966-4664 or send story ideas to o7dailypilot@latmes.com.

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