Posted on 09/19/2014 10:09:08 AM PDT by Lorianne
In one of America's richest towns residents are paying more than ten times the going rate for water in a desperate attempt to stave off California's "epochal" drought ___ Nestled under the Santa Ynez mountains and cooled by the Pacific Ocean breeze, the billionaires' bolt hole of Montecito, California, seems at first glance like a palm tree-strewn idyll.
Here, in one of America's wealthiest post codes, celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, George Lucas, Rob Lowe, Kevin Costner and Ellen DeGeneres live alongside CEOs too numerous to mention in some of the world's biggest and most outlandish homes.
But look a little closer and it is soon apparent there is trouble in this paradise: not even the likes of Miss Winfrey, it seems, can make it rain.
As California endures what the state's governor Jerry Brown has called a drought of "epochal" proportions, lawns everywhere – including one at a five-acre property owned by the chat show queen – are scorched and gone to seed.
A polo field also lies unwatered and, according to locals, some owners of $10 million (£6.2 million) homes are eating off paper plates to avoid using their dishwashers.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Wah, frickin’ wah. That’s what you get for living on the edge of a desert. You want unlimited water? come to Michigan. You can’t get away from it here if you tried.
CC
Milk it while you can, Media. This winter will be one of the wettest in decades here in CA. I’m more worried about flooding than I am about the drought continuing. Droughts are cyclical, and we have seen them before. The only thing that makes this one different is man-caused Global Warming. In other words, this drought is the same as all the other droughts in the past, and it will end.
Five gallons/minute for three hours is standard for a three bedroom home, you spoiled putz.
Why isn’t desalination of ocean water a possibility? The Pacific Ocean’s not going anywhere.
Stupid people-it was/is a f’in desert-if you don’t like that, move and take your money someplace else-like Florida. I guess something we’ve known a long time here-water conservation-will have to be learned by the rich idiots in Cali...
“The polo field is brown. We are still able to play but it doesn’t play as good.”
Bummer
Israelis are already doing that!
http://www.haaretz.com/life/nature-environment/1.596270
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/03/20/221880/israel-no-longer-worried-about.html
The Northeast has plenty of water. I laugh at these dolts who “naturally” wash their prius when it rains.
The NEW normal.. ultra left wing Super Rich...
Talk about oxymoron’s..
I don't think I use 2900 gallons of water in a frikkin' YEAR !
OOPS ... failing eyes ... 2400 gals
Water conservation in rural areas has been a reality forever-now the cities here are howling, but they must conserve-too bad-they are just spoiled, and I’ve no sympathy for people who waste anything.
The problem is that these people have been watering what is naturally a semi-arid area to turn it into their own personal tropical garden-they need to either learn not to water the desert or go thirsty-don’t need more water to waste...
Because the fools are wringing their hands and wetting their beds about salt concentration in the ocean. The salt you take out of the water has to go somewhere and adding it to the ocean is just unnatural don’t you know?
Silly isn’t i?
Get ready for a lot more salt concentration because the Middle East is gong to have to do it more and more one way or the other.
I've seen vegetable farms on the coast in Baja Mexico using relatively inexpensive ($1 million) desalinization units to water crops and wash produce after harvesting. I was surprised by the low cost and high output. Was told water was 100% potable.
They just figured that out?
I live in California’s central valley. There is a river (that runs all year) next to the town. Our water comes from a well (which I assume is replenished from the river).
All the river water ends up in San Francisco Bay. If we use all or none, it eventually all ends up in San Francisco Bay.
Because of the “drought” they want to ration the water, starting out controlling when you can wash your car or water your lawn. The next push is to make water meters mandatory.
Did I mention we live next to a river that runs all year long. We are not short of water. It is the one size fit all socialist way of doing things.
And you know this how?
I’m more worried about flooding than I am about the drought continuing. Droughts are cyclical, and we have seen them before.
Some droughts in California's history within the last few few thousand years lasted for over a decade. The 20th Century was in fact unusual for its 'usual' rainfall. So upon what basis do you offer this wisdom? El Nino? If it is, I wouldn't rely upon it. I've been tracking rainfall with ocean temperatures for fifteen years and I do not see ANY predictive value to an El Nino or La Nina event for any particular year. It may bear long term correlation over large areas, but I don't even see that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.