California builds homes in the desert during a drought

A Government of Fools

• In only five years California has added 1.8 million new water using people to the state. Now the fools in government are going to encourage even more population growth in hot desert areas where there is no water.
• But what the Hell.   Let's keep pouring millions and millions of new people on to the freeway and surface street system until we are packed in shoulder to shoulder like an ant colony.

(San Jose Mercury News)  -  For the first time since ordering water cuts across California, state officials propose easing the reductions for communities with rapid housing and business growth or sizzling hot climates.

In the Bay Area, water agencies most likely to benefit are in fast-growth areas like Silicon Valley, or in hot inland areas like Concord, Brentwood, Dublin and Pleasanton, state water officials said. The biggest beneficiaries statewide likely would be areas with the hottest climates like Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield and Palm Springs.

While the proposal was made amid a series of storms that has begun to replenish reservoirs, state officials said the proposed change in the emergency rules was not a response to the rain and snow, but to persistent complaints from some communities that the reduction targets are unfair to them.

"We're talking about modest adjustments in response to concerns about equity," said Max Gomberg, the state Water Resources Control Board's climate and conservation manager.

"We are responding cautiously because the drought is not over," he said.

Under the proposal released by the state board, water suppliers could get a maximum reduction of up to 4 percentage points in their state-assigned water cuts, which vary from 4 to 36 percent. The state's 25 percent conservation target would drop to 22 percent under this proposal.

Hot climate water agencies say it is unfair that their required cutbacks fail to provide some allowance for the extra water used on landscaping in their area. Water agencies can be fined for falling short of the targets.

One environmentalist called it a "bad idea" to change rules during a drought emergency.

"It sends the wrong message to move back from the conservation target," said Sara Aminzadeh, executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance. "We have done such a good job of communicating what we need to do for conservation, and to add this new element is confusing."

Aminzadeh said the state board should make no change until April, when officials know how much snow and rain will have fallen for the season. "Why change now?" she asked.

Read More . . . .

Riverlakes Golf Course in Bakersfield
Developers select names that have nothing to do with reality. Simply, there is no river and there are no lakes except man made ones.  California keeps adding millions of new water sucking houses for people and new businesses with no real thought about overpopulation or where the water will come from in a desert.