The city has reduced usage by a whopping 10%? BIG DEAL! Why are street medians getting watered at ALL? In Cuesta Park, high pressure sprinklers are watering patches of dirt. My dog likes the muddy grass there, though.

I've stopped all landscape watering at home, and aggressive conservation is obviously required. But the city of MV has no right to issue a single fine until they reduce their own ridiculous wasteful usage by something more than a laughable token amount

Given we don't have enough water for existing business and residents, why are we even considering building more business/housing until we have a plan to not require 25% (or even 40%) water use reductions? Let's get our infrastructure fixed, before placing even more burden on it.

"The city has reduced usage by a whopping 10%? BIG DEAL!"

Reread the article. Usage is down by 17-22%.

Read the article yourself! "Since April, the city has reduced water use by 10 percent in parks and street medians."

That was eric's obvious context.

Why are businesses still watering their big lawns? Are they going to get fined, or is it only residential?

@@"@eric" (seriously? both of you guys, use an actual name in the "name" field)

Actually, both "well over 10%" AND the 17% and 22% figures are used. At any rate, it is more than 10% however you slice it.

@concerned. The drought is a temporary, cyclical issue. Community growth is a long term one.

Jackson Park has huge overages in water use. There is routine water drainage down the streets and puddled at the intersection of Jackson and Fountain Park Ln for days at a time. When city workers were approached I was told "It's overage and can't be helped." I'm waiting for a fine to be levied on me...their overages stops in front of my house. The City needs to do more...the residences have proved they can, now it's time for the city to buck up too!

Next, the city will fine home owners for not maintaining their lawns. This Catch 22 is in effect in SoCal cities.

@Ron - this area has seen 100 year droughts in the past, and with climate change, I think no one is particularly confident of what is going to happen. Clearly, we don't have enough water for the current community, so it seems to only make sense to address that, before pushing for more growth.

I live in a small apt. complex and I'm noticing the trees in the complex are in bad shape with one large one turning brown. The manager is a do-nothing and is oblivious to this. Surly we must keep the trees alive around town at the very least. I've been tempted to go out in the middle of the night and trickle water our trees. Would that be acceptable under the new restrictions?

We were on Castro a couple of days ago and noticed the nice green lawn in the median that they never should have built. Don't these people who plan and run our government see the future the way the average citizen does? I think it is obvious to most people that water resources will be strained in the future. There are too many places humans have built that don't have the necessary natural resources such as Las Vegas and Palm Springs and we build things such as golf courses that need excessive amounts of water and move it to these places and end up using more water than the earth has to give. We can't go on over populating and wasting natural resources as well as polluting the Earth and then expect to have a livable planet in the future. Our government needs to lead the people in the right direction now so that those who live in the future will have the resources to survive. We need to conserve not only when the need is obvious, but every day to insure that future generations will have the resources they need as well.

I would guess that a lot of "water wasters" do so in the privacy of their own home. Those people that stand in front of the sink with the faucet running while washing one dish at a time? It's just as easy to fill the sink with soapy water and use that. Or letting the water run while brushing your teeth? Wouldn't it be great if hardware stores sold those foot pedals to operate the faucet, like you see in hospitals and doctors' offices?

Instead of using threats and punishments, how about providing workshops on how to use water from your washing machine to irrigate your landscape?

Instead of these silly, difficult-to-enforce restrictions, the City should do something about their own water waste on public property, and just charge consumers more for water use beyond some predetermined "average" amount. Use more, pay more, after teaching people how to use less.

"@concerned. The drought is a temporary, cyclical issue. Community growth is a long term one."

The larger the community grows means only one thing, THE SOONER WE WILL RUN OUT OF WATER.

Just say no to any new Buildings.

The current drought will end like all others in the last 1000 years, we live in a Mediterranean climate and it goes with the territory.

Given that Agriculture uses 75% (see link below) of the State's water, municipal efforts
to conserve will not "get it done". It would be useful if we could
hear some stats about what's being done to *meaningfully* address this
problem.

Web Link

At our house, we have reduced our water use by 50%! Yes, the front yard is dismal, the backyard is grass-free and my garden is brown and shriveled (heartbreaking after years of work). My heart would swell with pride if I weren't so irked to see others not making similar sacrifices, starting with the City of Mountain View. The parks and playing fields are regularly over watered to the point that some areas are boggy and pavement/blacktop are puddled. Before taxpayers are fined, let's see our City amend THEIR water use and double down on adjusting auto sprinklers and being more water wise. THEN they can level fines free of hypocrisy.

It is wary wasteful to have "overwatered" parks - thanks for two specifics - Jackson and Cuest (somewhere - it BIG). Pictures please! (& send to Voice news) Some city medians are hopefully eared by mix recycled water?
Trees - are very expensive to replace. DON'T LET THEM DIE! There is a 'deep root' fertilizing watering tool (a long ground piercing water tube) that can be used to feed these trees every 2 or 3 weeks, just in their root zone. It vastly decreases the amount of evaporation from the first foot of top-soil.