I disagree with the assumptions or subtext of this article. Restricting growth in MV is exactly the wrong way to cope with the drought, an artifact of the narrow-minded, city-by-city water allocation. Growth that takes place here is growth that doesn't take place in less water-wise places like Tracy or Stockton.

If we want to conserve water very aggressively, I suggest that stopping irrigation on the Shoreline golf course is a better option than stopping development.

Sometime during the current drought I'd like to see The Voice write an article to explain how the dramatic decrease in water usage was achieved over the last 40 years -- especially the per-capita reduction. Was it mostly due to widespread adoption of recycled water ("purple pipe water") for irrigation in North Bayshore, having a smaller percentage of water-hungry single-family homes in our housing mix, the disappearance of manufacturing plants that used lots of water, widespread adoption of low-flow toilets, rapidly escalating water prices, or what? Probably a combination of all these, of course, but which changes had the biggest impact? And where should we turn to ratchet down per-capita usage even further?

Bruce, very good point. I agree completely.

The golf course is irrigated with secondary sewage water. It's not potable water. A lot of irrigation in the North Bayshore "office" area is the same water source--somewhat saltier and not sanitary enough to be considered potable. There's an entire separate water distribution network for this type of water coming out of the sewage treatment plant and it doesn't reach everywhere. A lot of Stanford University irrigation uses this source too, as they have connections to distribute the water all over the campus.

Indoor residential is the *third* largest use of water in California, after agriculture and landscaping. The state needs to step up and make water consumption more expensive for farms, and they need to place restrictions on outdoor residential use.

Outdoor water can percolate in refill the aquifer. Farm runoff needs to be regulated more, not actual irrigation. One way farms can use water is in the winter when the crops don't need it. Then can use surface water to flood the field on purpose. This recharges the aquifer. Life is not always so clear about good and evil. They can flood with secondary sewage water for one thing. We just try to pump that back into the ground anyway hopefully but a lot ends up running out to the ocean which can cause problems. Unfortunately the sewage treatment plant is usually (as in our case) set to flow to the ocean by the determined plant location. This makes pumping the usable but non potable water around be expensive.

Yes, all of our treated wastewater should be either reused for irrigation or pumped into the ground. And we should promote efficient farming practices.