"The watering restriction would save the city an estimated 171 gallons of water between now and June next year, assuming people were watering an average of four days per week in 2013."

Hmmm, 171 gallons of water saved over twelve months doesn't sound like much. But I guess one must start somewhere.

Kevin: did you omit "millions" in you statistics? Or are you talking about gallons per day per resident?

Better late than never, in terms of water restrictions. Who voted against this on the council? I'm curious to hear his/her short-sided, fairytale-land, pompous reason for voting no.

Grey water users can water any day. Why let bath or shower water just flow into the sewer when you can use it again in your yard? Its a huge improvement on how things look, AND we're using about 35% less water without much effort.

What is the watering schedule for the Mountain View Schools landscaping & athletic fields, for Mountain View Parks, for Public golf courses and for Mountain View roadway landscaping?

With just 2 days of 15 minutes each, I don't see how any grass lawn can survive. I'm not opposed to doing my part including possibly killing off my lawn, but we need to make sure this is a smart strategy.

What I'd rather see is this plan being phased in more gradually, e.g. 3x per week and much higher water rates for usage about a certain tier of gallons / week. I realize it looks ugly to have a green lawn during a water crisis but the enemy isn't lawns, it's anyone with high water usage. The city knows exactly how much water each residential unit is using, or at least for the houses, so why isn't it using this data?

With 80% of California water usage being used for commercial purposes and just 20% for residential, and with almonds in specific requiring about a gallon per nut (!) we might not have our priorities straight on this. Any cut in water usage is 5 times more effective for commercial use than for residential.

I commend the city for taking action, but it seems like there's a smarter approach.

@Rethink the Plan: You should read my post above. With MV soil's great water retaining clay base, things can naturally get by with less watering. Couple that with using recycled water and you could be all set. With ZERO watering since March, my yard looks better now that it did before March! The addition of grey water has been the key, and we are in control of that. No restrictions on when we can water with grey water. I'm gonna kick this drought's butt ;) If no rains come next winter, it will call for more extreme ideas, maybe including the washer and dishwasher, we'll see.

Rather than pointing at others and proclaiming "Problem", point at yourself and proclaim "Solution!"

"Large" landscapes are not subject to the watering schedule restriction. Instead, they will be given a water budget and achieve savings to come 20% under that budget.

If they fail that target two months in a row, they would then go to the watering schedule.

Not just that sentence is wrong. Also "the city is expected to drop use by between 570 to 633 gallons this year, Hosfeldt said."

@Rethink The Plan

"With just 2 days of 15 minutes each, I don't see how any grass lawn can survive."

I've actually been doing just exactly that for the last 15+ years. Water late evening, 15 minutes each section, the day I mow lawns and mid-week. That is with lawns that are fully exposed to sunlight almost all day. Winter I won't water at all. Since last November, however, I think I have watered 5, maybe 6 times at most. Lawns looked good until this year.

Lenny Siegel's comments make a ton of sense. I water once every 5 days which is less than twice a week but it doesn't always fall on my prescribed days. This restrictive approach is bogus. I also think the staffs comments sound LAZY.

Anyone ever bought a drip system Timer? They want us to use drip as it is the most efficient way to water, right? Most every current drip timer is configured by choosing the number of days between watering cycles, not the days of the week. The last time I checked, we have an odd number of days in each week. Thus, one week I may start out with Tuesday and Friday but not the next week and not the next, etc

So, how do we comply with the silly day of the week requirement? I tend to water every 4 days for five minutes, well below the ask, but due to my timers that I purchased from OSH, the water police will be angry with me......

Shouldn't our savings be based on water usage instead of some arbitrary rules that are base on the uninformed??

Ideas? Btw, most of my plants are herbs, vegetables, and fruit trees, shouldn't food be exempt? I'm not growing any Almonds!!

Tell me the number I need to reach and penalize me if I don't get there. But don't mandate HOW I hit my number. Let people decide on their own tradeoffs.

For lawn, isn't 4 days at 7 minutes more efficient for the lawn than 2 days at 15 minutes?

Restricting residents to watering any outdoor landscaping to 15 minutes on 2 pre-set days of the week seems ridiculous, and practically speaking, very difficult and potentially very expensive to enforce - if it is realistically enforceable at all.

Are the water police going to be circling neighborhoods night and day, checking addresses against the day of the week and prowling in backyards with stopwatches running looking for violators to fine? Seriously?

How about setting monthly targets for residents and letting them DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES how they are going to achieve their water saving goals?

I am totally on board with making every effort to reduce water usage by whatever amount is deemed necessary and then some if I am able, but I tend to draw the law at government dictating what days of the week I can use water for a particular purpose. Is it okay if I flush my toilet more than once a day, or are we going to be issued permits good for only 30 flushes a month?

Slippery slope stuff.

Driving down El Camino in the morning today, I noticed giant pools of water in the street from the city sprinklers drenching the plants in the median. It would be nice if the city's rules applied to themselves too.

It's entertaining to read the comments complaining about restricting water usage on ornamental landscapes during a DROUGHT! It's even amusing to note that the same people who don't want to conserve water during a DROUGHT also oppose having a fast, efficient public transit option available on El Camino.

Hopefully this level of intelligent thinking is in a dwindling minority. Greed and short-sightedness like that will doom us all....

Lazy MV. You stated........

" It's even amusing to note that the same people who don't want to conserve water during a DROUGHT also oppose having a fast, efficient public transit option available on El Camino.

Hopefully this level of intelligent thinking is in a dwindling minority. Greed and short-sightedness like that will doom us all...."

We do actually wish to have fast, efficient and public transit options. BRT is not it in case you hadn't read anything or listened to anything. Wake up, some of the water rules miss the point as well. Days of the week is just an ignorant approach. Drought minding is well. But the current plan has no understanding of how long and how many showers are taken. The bigger controllable solution. Bottom line, to not base it on water usage and instead on arbitrary rules is blind.

Looking forward to being doomed if that is your definition.
Not shared by most that actually live here btw.

Why will enforcing days of the week cause the collapse of civilization as we know it? It makes enforcement possible. Most water waste comes from careless property owners who set up a watering schedule and forget it. Those water wasters will now be easily caught and they can be forced to stop wasting water.

Every time MV Voice posts a piece of news about changing the status quo, the same tired trolls wake up and start slamming the ideas. Of course their arguments are weak and their alternatives are either non-existent, highly damaging or simply impossible.

It's dictating the manner which residents use water which is problematic, as opposed to simply giving residents a water reduction number they need to hit in order to avoid a fine/penalty, and letting each individual resident decide for themselves how they will reach that number (achieve the water saving).

Practically speaking, are the water police going to be prowling in private backyards in the middle of the night watching/listening for sprinklers or drip irrigation systems at work? If so, I'm guess that the Mountain View police are going to be VERY busy with prowler calls, and hopefully some water minder won't be assaulted or something if they are skulking about on someone's private property.

Again, for those with comprehension issues...

~~~~~~~~~~

Restricting residents to watering any outdoor landscaping to 15 minutes on 2 pre-set days of the week seems ridiculous, and practically speaking, very difficult and potentially very expensive to enforce - if it is realistically enforceable at all.

Are the water police going to be circling neighborhoods night and day, checking addresses against the day of the week and prowling in backyards with stopwatches running looking for violators to fine? Seriously?

How about setting monthly targets for residents and letting them DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES how they are going to achieve their water saving goals?

I am TOTALLY ON BOARD with making every effort to reduce water usage by whatever amount is deemed necessary and then some if I am able, but I tend to draw the line at government dictating what days of the week I can use water for a particular purpose. Is it okay if I flush my toilet more than once a day, or are we going to be issued permits good for only 30 flushes a month?

Slippery slope stuff. Really, it is.

DAYS.........since you are soo smart and we are all idiots for questioning anything, I must deduce that you are a City Council Member?

Again, most commercially available drip system timers will not be able to follow these rules due to their design. Not due to a desire to object to every thing published in The Voice. Drip systems that are set up properly save a significant amount of water. Especially if you let them run on regular intervals. Again, this does not make me either a Troll or careless as you want us to believe.

Since no one on Council or apparently City Staff did any homework and you are soo smart Mr or Mrs DAYS, how do we use drip irrigation AND comply??

[Portion removed due to personal attack]

I'm happy that Mountain View is being aggressive in clamping down on the water hogs. With the Council approving the BRT project, I am truly glad to be a resident of this city.

The city's rules are just guidelines. They don't have water police out watching your yards between midnight and 5 am. The one thing that counts is the number of CCF charged on your bill It's really silly to put any other rules out there. Forget drip irrigation. If you find 15 minutes not enough, just get a hose timer and also add a couple of oscillating sprinklers out to augment your built in the ground sprinklers. Some systems are designed with rotary sprinklers that dont splat out all over their coverage area continuously during their cycle. Yeah, it sure makes sense to count that 15 minutes when 80% of the coverage are is not being wetted.

I don't think the city claims it is illegal to add sprinkler heads. So long as you limit each station to 15 minutes, you can have as many stations as you wish, according to the regulations. These are really well thought out plans.

Note that the state removed this crap from the draft regulations when they got real specific about assigning targets of 4%, 8%.... 28%, 32%, 36% supplier by supplier. It's a case of chickens running around with their heads off and making rules and regulations as they dance.

Oh yeah, and it's all because of BRT on El Camino. That's where the water went. Whats' with that guy?

The VTA has thousands of employees, consultants and other dependents with nothing better to do than post propaganda on articles in newspapers.