[Zeke]

Water is the least effective way of fighting a wildfire. Might work well in concentrations like a house burning. AFA water is concerned, 18% of CA water is consumed by households. So if you're gonna go all nazi about water usage, start with eliminating almond orchards and work your way down the list from there.

If you wanna pare the residential usage, then go after the lawns first. Personally, I think people with lots of lawn are the perfect example of what's wrong with people to begin with.

Folks here call me grumpy, but if you had to live in Long Beach (albeit not too bad a neighborhood) and had only the neighbors I have to interact with, you'd be unhappy with people too. Selfish, stupid (and ignorant), and rude. The younger the worse.

People say move if you don't like the neighborhood, the county, the region, the state. Where does one go? I should ask the tens of thousands of white flight folks that are bailing daily. My neighbors across the street took off 7/6 for TN. They were quoted $5000 for a U-haul trailer, not even a truck (one way). BTW, they bought a trailer as they can sell it immediately, even if they have it towed back to CA, and get back what they paid. New and used are virtually non existent to buy.

Me, I wouldn't be happy in TN or most other places in the US. I lived in AL for a year so I know a bit about that. Lived in NV for a year too and I can tell you states that get that hot are out of the question. Las Vegas is simply a mistake in history. We've made a few of those.

Of course I digress, but this is part of the drought discussion. BTW. SoCal has a lot of reserve water stored underground and in reservoirs. That doesn't mean we should waste any at all. But the dense population of L.A. County is not a back breaking factor in the overall drought picture.

Cliff, SoCal solar farms are producing more electricity than we can use on many days. Some days, when it's really hot, we go into a deficit and either buy some from the grid or turn it off, sequentially. We have generating capability so we don't need the dam generated power, it's just cheap and we own the dam (power wise). What we don't have are batteries to even things out. That technology is elu$ive.

Snow in the mountains makes for water in the rivers and lakes. There has been little snow for 3 years. Rain up north in the flatlands doesn't help much. It hasn't rained but 4.5" in Long Beach in the last 12 months. Our 'big' month was Dec 2020 @ 1.5 inches. I know a LOT of places that get that in a day.

Long Beach itself gets half its water from wells. We recycle enough water to use on the parks and golf courses almost exclusively. There will always be a source for that recycle water.

Desalinization takes enormous amounts of energy. Back to square one.