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City Councilman is Violating the Water Conservation Law on Purpose
Photo by Matt McGee via Flickr
Photo by Matt McGee via Flickr
Los Angeles City Councilman Greig smith has brought up some legitimate points in the recent drought-related debates, but his most recent announcement about his scofflaw watering may be pushing it. Yesterday at a committee meeting, the Northwest Valley representative said he was challenging the current water laws by watering his lawn three times a week for 8 minutes. "And my grass is greener than it's ever been, and I bet I'm using less water," he said.
Current law allows for lawn watering twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays before 9 a.m. and after 4 p.m. Residents in his district have complained over the summer saying that the limit was turning their lawns brown.
What's wrong with this picture? For one, to be living in one of the hottest parts of the city, which is located in a desert anyway, and try to maintain a lawn is a pretty ridiculous notion.
Smith has fought the Department of Water and Power before with good ideas such on water conservation rates and how they affect equestrian owners. That makes sense--the horses need to be kept healthy. Lawns, however, are vanity and can be realistically done with native plants under the current restrictions and should be no matter what, considering the impending environmental disaster of global warming that possibly awaits us (after all, scientists say that our particular Mediterranean biome will be global warming's first stops and the feds are concerned about Joshua Trees going extinct at Joshua Tree National Park).
This is no longer the post-war San Fernando Valley. As hard as change may be for some people, especially the those with the conservative values found in the Northwest Valley, it's time to stop whining and get with the program like the rest of us.
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