Posted on 07/14/2014 5:32:02 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Neighbors are tattling on neighbors for wasting water and some are taking their drought shaming to social media.
If you’ve ever had the feeling you’re being watched while you water your lawn, there’s a good chance you are during this historic drought.
In Sacramento, water wasters can face fines, and the enforcer may be someone who lives right next door.
Terrance Davis with the city department of utilities says he’s seeing a trend of drought shaming.
“Our water use complaint calls have gone up exponentially from the last 2 years,” he said.
Karen Halbo lives in River Park. She says it’s not about whose lawn is greener anymore, it’s about whose lawn is browner.
“Frankly when your lawn looks as bad as mine does you sort of want to encourage others to stop watering concrete,” she said.
Down the street, Pam Ferko admits the pressure from her neighbors not to waste sometimes has her sneaking around.
“I think my husband has been guilty of coming out late at night and doing a little secretive watering underneath the trees,” she said.
Even the Capitol lawn is drought shaming by example, with signs reading “If we can go brown, so can you.”
Some may find the drought shaming vindictive or sneaky, but the city says that competition is motivation, and it’s working to reduce water waste.
“Obviously we can’t see everything, can’t be everywhere so having people in the community helping us out—residents, neighbors—reporting those types of things is a great tool for us too,” Davis said.
The city says from January to June, it’s received more than 8,000 calls to its water-use complaint line. Just last month, the city saw a 17 percent cut in water use.
Hey that's right, I'll scream even louder if those building permits are used to house illegals. :))
If I recall correctly, there are still significant portions of the state capital that are not on water meters ... they just pay a flat rate no matter how much water they use. (You should hear the screaming every time a proposal is made to install water meters ... you’d think the residents were being forced to support Prop 8!)
“Deer graze in my lawn.”
You should be able to get your grass back -in a way, come deer season.
My yard supports a herd of 4 females and a 3 y.o. buck who’s reluctant to leave the herd. I made a PVC deer feeder I fill with deer corn. During the rut the girls attract all kinds of suitors and don’t mind if some of the juvenile bucks leave them alone, like forever. They’ll select a buck for them and he’ll stay around until someone gets him. In the past year they had an 8-pt. and a 6-pt. with them.
I don’t target the members of the herd but apparently someone else does across the street. Since the bucks like to roam they disappear but not the does. The does stay in a conservation area and provided I keep the deer feeder stocked. They rarely cross the street during the day and only leave the preservation area to pick up a new buck. We have an Oct. thru Feb. season for deer in this part of FL so bucks don’t last long.
Watching this herd I’ve learned they are quite sociable animals. The girls will spend up to an hour standing at the edge of my front yard at night waiting to see if one of their buck acquaintances will approach from the forest stand across the street. My property has the only break in fencing for 1+ mile so I get all the deer traffic into the large swamp and preserve on my side of the road.
Oh, I do shoot them in the fall when the season opens.
Michigan, you’ve got some big bucks up there. The 6 and 8-pt. bucks in my area are less than 150 lbs. But we do have a 2-buck per day limit and an Oct. - Feb season to make up for it. ; )
We have a 2 buck per year limit and 90+ day season.
Does on the other hand are almost unlimited in the number you can shoot. The tags are unlimited in some areas, there is no daily or yearly limit on them.
Actually, that was caused by some geek in a black robe.
Illegal aliens in the US drink the equivalent of Lake Tahoe every year.
Our resources are finite, we either decide to save them for our children or let third world invaders use them up.
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