as child in upstate NY, there was a mystique about California and anyone who moved there was immediately rich...I'm not kidding...we all thought of it as paradise...which it truly is....
I've been lucky enough to travel by road thru Oregon and Washington and Nevada and Idaho and New Mexico recently....
people don't understand that the west is primarily in many parts semi arid or arid, and it doesn't take much of a drought to cause severe problems...
I grew up overseas and CA was one of our “dream” surfing destinations...not withstanding the girls either.
I lived in Las Vegas for a couple of years in the late 80s and was introduced to desert living...I was amazed at the amount of water Clark County “wasted” during that time...golf courses, casinos with huge water displays, large lawns front and back in houses, etc.
I’ve learned a lot about CA since moving here and primarily, the weather patterns are cyclic...something along the lines of every 200 years or so if I recall correctly.
I had always thought Catalina Island was some sort of tropical paradise...it’s anything but.
It’s really a desert island believe it or not...very little precipitation.
We’re doing our part here in the high desert...I’ve taken out all but one tree and rose bush from our property and looking at putting in fake turf in the back yard and taking the grass out of the front lawn and replacing it with decomposed granite and some rocks...
It’s a win/win for me...I don’t like lawn work and it saves me work on the sprinkler system and water ($$$).
There are folks who really do “waste” water...they don’t aim their sprinklers correctly, over water, water even during the winter when the grass goes dormant, etc.
I used to wash my truck about 3-4 times per year. I haven’t washed it in over a year now...
I can only attribute the wastefulness to those who moved here from the East Coast where water is regarded as “plentiful”...habits are hard to break.