Is Watering Lawns Unconstitutional?

An article published in the Los Angeles Times earlier this week reports that an environmental group is planning to urge the State Department of Water Resources to end pumping all water out of the San Joaquin Delta on grounds that using water for lawns and agriculture violates California's constitution...

Meanwhile, environmental groups such as the California Water Impact Networkare contending that many of our water-use practices violate the state's constitutional mandate that water be put to beneficial use to the maximum possible extent and that waste or unreasonable use be prevented.They particularly object to pumping water from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta to irrigate thirsty crops like cotton and alfalfa, as well as lawns. These environmentalists plan to petition the state Department of Water Resources to permanently reduce Delta pumping. If state officials or the courts agree, it would affect virtually every aspect of water use.

The Metropolitan Water District, which supplies all of the water here in SoCal, gets a lot of its water from the San Joaquin Delta. Last year, courts ordered MWD to reduce its takes from the Delta by 40% to save a species of fish. Environmentalists now want that reduced down to zero.

(It would be interesting to see how many environmentalists have lawns)

Nonetheless, our local water district, EMWD, is implementing a "Stop Runoff" program that goes into effect this September 1, where they're going to penalize homeowners that have water running off of their property and into the gutter...

The fact that our water districts are losing water is perhaps the biggest reason why we need to put a halt on further housing development.

Stuffing more people into our new city is going to cause our water district to implement stricter rules, and make water more expensive.

Or put it this way, as homeowners who reside in Menifee, it's in our best interest to preserve what quality of living we already have.