"Sprinklers may run, but they do not run away. A sprinkler does not see the police car coming around the corner, lay down the punk, and pretend it must have been some other lawn in the neighborhood. Neither does a sprinkler's mom lie for him, nor do his parents drive him to Missouri to buy water."
Friday, August 24, 2012
Sprinklers may run
I've now heard or read several people making a remark something to this effect: "If the police can suddenly jump all over the illegal outdoor watering, why can't they do something about all those illegal fireworks around the Fourth of July?" I responded to one of these earlier this week on the Lincoln Journal Star's website, but it's buried in the bowels, so I share it here:
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49 comments:
That's funny!!!!!
Kind of like comparing apples and oranges, isn't it?
The best water can be bought at Rockport, MO.... :)
I knew a kid once who watered his finger off and nearly lost an eye from it.
My favorite kind of fireworks are the fountains.
That was hilarious!! Thanks for the morning laugh!
That's hilarious!! and the following comments. Thanks for the morning laugh!
Fireworks don't dry up the aquifer...
Based on this morning's paper, even the fines are not helping reduce water usage. I finally decided to let my lawn go dormant (I had already cut down considerably on my watering), and now we got rain. You just can't win. People are still going to think I'm a jerk because I have green grass. Maybe I could paint it brown. :)
Tom. now matter what you say, not matter how much it's in the news, some people just aren't going to get it.WE can only hopw the gene pool dires up before anything else.
Steve,
Yes, that's the problem the team discussed last night: enforcement and the messaging to date has not curtailed usage enough. Despite aggravating a whole lot of violators with door knocks and tickets, the difference in consumption is pretty small in comparison to where we need to be.
Lincoln Water System has some long-term ideas that I think are promising, but for this season, we either need to get some really good rains in the Elkhorn and Loup River valleys, or do something that suppresses consumption further.
There are some bi-monthly residential water bills that have gone out this week that are between $1,200 and $1,500. I would think the arrival of a bombshell even a third that size in your mailbox would cause a gasp.
If I got a $1500 water bill, it would be my last gasp!
Director,
All this water talk got me to wondering about where all of the public water fountains have gone? When I was a kid(I'll soon be 66) almost every town of any size had drinking fountains available on the sidewalks. It has been years since I have seen any in Lincoln. Of course I can't walk the streets now and maybe I am just overlooking them.
Gun Nut
Pictures of the Platte River, now the Platte Sandbar, should be enough to get people's attention but it won't.
Gun Nut,
I think you're right--they have all disappeared. Am I hallucinating, or weren't here a few stand-alone water fountains in downtown back when I walked a foot beat? Northwest corner of 10th & O? Anybody?
Maybe they were removed by the same people who took most of these things away.
Gun Nut:
Scary world we live in. Look very carefully at this photograph of a total stranger on the NE corner of 10th and O, taken with a Panasonic DMC-FZ20 at f5.6 and 1/500th on April 22, 2007 at 10:523 AM.
In the mid background, right over the left corner of the milestone, is that a water fountain?
What a poor and lazy excuse. With the quantity of officers, resources, technology and budget allotted the police, they could very easily do a better job enforcing fireworks laws. As is demonstrable by the current water enforcement situation. Every year the fireworks start earlier (June 30 this year in my neighborhood) as people are emboldened by your increasing lack of care to enforce. I guess it's only important to enforce the easy laws. Do your job and stop making excuses.
My 6 year old is facinated with water fountains. Whenever we go to the park he is sure to hit the water fountain. Unfortunately for him, very few of them actually work.
Not to mention that the few times we've seen a phone booth he begs for change so he can call someone to see what its like!
There certainly were water fountains downtown many years ago. I can't tell, and don't remember what may have been in the picture posted (linked). It's too bad the ones left in the parks seldom work anymore. I noticed when the bike trail was redone along Antelope Creek near the zoo, that they put in a special walkway up to the water fountain that used to be right along the path. Unfortunately, I took the time to go out of my way for a drink the one time I've been on the trail since the remodel, and there was not a drop of water to be had from the fountain. Perhaps they were watering too much.
Director,
If you mean the thing just to the right of the tree and under the One Way arrow I would say it is one of those fire proof ashtrays. Next guess would be a water fountain though.
Gun Nut
Keep in mind that the people who got the citations are not being charged with wasting water....just watering on the wrong day...why would it impact water usage? That is not what is even being targeted.
You are a local treasure and I am so grateful for your communication style (selfishly) but also for your universal approach to citizenship, law and humanity. Thanks for you!
5:38,
I think the concept is that if you only water on three days, instead of 4, 5, 6, or 7, that you would tend to use less water overall. The impact has been slightly greater than slight, but not as great as hoped. If you really want to reduce consumption, here's the idea I like: make people pay through the nose if you exceed a certain threshold. Lincoln already has a tiered pricing structure, but a steeper curve could be implemented. Switch from bi-monthly to monthly billing, and I think the squeal from the wallet would be more effective than the tickets. Let the economics of escalating price structures squeeze those who squander until their eyeballs pop.
Hoestly Im not really sure what your expecting us to do? I recognise the conditons in relation to water keep changing but...If you look at all the people and all the properties what actuall percentage are not in compliance. The count now 800 to some what 275,000 people over almost two weeks? Which makes it about nill... So is it really that bad ? And just because the mayor has spoken does not mean he was heard or wants to listen! What is he a King ? I know from my delaings with people it is an enromous task to get others to reach a common goal or accomplishment. Now that everyone has almost figured out the rules, well maybe, we have the possibilty of pulling the carpet out from us again and go to two days or a full ban or who knows what...can you imagine how many more sprinler controls will need to be adjusted? or unplugged.... By the way part of the problem may be simply or not so simply making sure the time and date of the onboard clock is set current. Over a years time mine wanders quite a bit and its current and all digital display and then theres the DST factor too. Older ones are mechanical and even new ones can be effected by surges, power outages and the like. Just a thought, live and learn.
An electrician would call even / odd watering "load balancing".
Under normal conditions an inch of water per week is plenty 10 mins for sprays and 20 for rotors possibly in split cycles to reduce runoff (clay soil) and early (after mid) when wind is likely low and system pressures are good.
Even if the odd/even concept hasn't reduced overall consumption as much as hoped, it keeps the demand spread out so the wells have time to recharge rather than running dry if everyone were to water on the same day.
9:02,
Honestly, I don't know what you expect us to do, either.
Ignore the law and let everyone do whatever they want?
I realize lots of people are confounded by their automatic sprinkler controls, but I'm also pretty sure most of them are plugged into a wall outlet.
I'm hoping that for future years, LWS can adopt a steeper pricing tier and a monthly ( rather than the current bi-monthly) billing cycle, so the massive water bills encourage the most unreasonable of the lawn-worshippers to dial it back, without penalizing those who keep their usage in a reasonable summer range. We're not having much of an effect with these restrictions, and enforcement is burning up a lot of police resources, and hacking off a lot of ordinary citizens.
Not our choice, though, and we're stuck for now with the law we have and the task we've been given. After this season is over, we'll be getting together to see what we might be able to improve. I've been told that droughts are sometimes multi-year events.
9:02
If you want to use statistics to prove a point, you need to use meaningful numbers. Your starting number, 275,000, represents the entire population of the city. The real number you should be using is the number of households, or properties with lawns to water (which includes some businesses and public properties). This reduces the number considerably. From there you must reduce it even more to the properties that actually water their lawns in the first place. That probably cuts it in half, at least. Of those properties that do water their lawns on the wrong days, only those actually reported get tickets. That number (800 by your count) is most likely far less than the actual number of places watering on the wrong days. Even 800 people watering on the wrong day adds somewhere around 2-3 million gallons of water to the total use for the day (based on an average size lot and an inch of water).
Actually, I shouldn't say that the watering restrctions aren't having much of an effect. We really don't know where consumption would have gone without the restrictions, do we?
Oops.
I forgot the 800 people were over two weeks, so that cuts down the extra water per day considerably. Still, 800 people per day is probably more likely the true story, since only a fraction of the violators are reported, just as with fireworks violators and many other illegal activities.
I like the idea of extending a big pipeline from to the Missouri river to the Ashland Water plant, so that Lincolnites and enjoy guzzling H2O like the Omahans have done throughout this drought. Then King Beutler can stop his foray into social engineering...
I wonder how much water consumption decreased after the big grow house busts a couple of years ago...
"Honestly, I don't know what you expect us to do, either.
Ignore the law and let everyone do whatever they want?"
That's what ICE seems to do lately. /rimshot
I'll be here all week; make sure to try the specials. But seriously, folks, tiered pricing will be an effective deterrent for most people, once the reality of the bills hits. Sure, for some with really thick wallets, money isn't an obstacle, like those that still drive H1 hummers in countries where fuel is an equivalent of 12 bucks a gallon.
Yes, it bothers some folks to no end when they see a few doing what they themselves can't afford to do, but like HAL told Dave, take a stress pill and relax.
Cooler nights, brings cooler soil temps. Cut down the water pouring on the yards (city wide) and we will be thankful in the long run. Your grass will stay sleepy at this point, not die! Grass was here a long time before any of us, and it will be here a long time after so everyone needs to put the real priority into perspective. As a lawn and landscape business owner, I have just as much as an obligation to the environment as I do my customers. The French lawn guy ;)
Having my neighbors water in the middle of the night has never woken me up, but the same neighbor lighting fireworks during the middle of the night..THAT'S when I wake up!
What I, for one, want you to do ( since you asked) is offer advise to mayor that tickets aren't impacting water use any more than warnings. Previous post noted that warnings were working and repeat violators were extremely rare. Therefore, until this law can be changed so it results in fine or increased water payment or something that actually makes sense...warnings ( your discretion I believe) should be utilized.
I know when I moved to Nebraska from a state than has an all out ban on them...I was shocked at the amount of fireworks blasting throughout the city...but had no concerns during July. I do get annoyed when the city allows them to be used as a way to celebrate anything Husker. I called police once to report fireworks in October and was told it was part of football celebration... I guess those football fan neighbors of mine who called police to report an error in watering may have a less tolerant neighbor this year!
For the past five years or so I have suggested on the LJS, Omaha WH and other online blogs that we build pipelines from the areas that have annual flooding and send flood waters to areas above the Ogallala Aquifer so that Aquifer can be recharged. Just one year ago BILLIONS of gallons of water were causing problems all along the Missouri River. If we could have sent a few billion gallons of that excess water West to recharge underground Aquifers our water problem today might not be so severe. It takes several years to get anything done in this country. IF WE had put a system in place TEN years ago maybe today. . . ?
GUN NUT
12:22 anon gave me an idea. If grass were red, instead of green, perhaps the city wouldn't be so quick to condemn anyone with healthy, growing grass. There's a project UNL should be working on with some federal grant money!
Tom. What happens if someone turns in their neighbor for having automatic sprinklers going and when your officers arrive, they are shut off? Do they get a ticket, based on a witness, or wet grass, or is it a cat and mouse game until the next offense?
11:41
Take a picture that shows the sprinklers running with the house and address somewhere included in the photo. I don't know if police would accept that and prosecute (ticket), but it's better than word of mouth.
Or knock on your neighbors door like a kind neighbor would and save the police, prosecutor, judge, court clerk, and, of course, your neighbor all of this nonsense.
1:54,
Amen.
Block parties are a great way for neighbors to get to know each other and talk over some of the petty annoyances and pet peeves. Pot Luck and no booze keeps the atmosphere friendly.
One of these in my neighborhood recently worked out great.
All the neighbors know I have a motorcycle. My bike is very quiet but a neighbor a block up has a really loud Honda Shadow and he has a habit of waking the whole neighborhood up at 3:00 AM. On the day of our potluck dinner I had pulled my motorcycle out of the garage and on to the driveway so we could set up the tables and chairs in the garage. One of the neighbors asked who owned the motorcycle and I told him it was mine. He asked me if I could keep it a bit quieter when I came home in the middle of the night. He didn't appreciate waking up to it in the middle of the night. I told him I never came home in the middle of the night. I am always in front of the TV or computer or in bed from 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM.
I think he was still a bit skeptical until the noisy neighbor rode by on his loud Honda a few minutes later. Since then he makes a point of being friendly. Without the potluck get together there might still be a problem.
Gun Nut
The word is 'perspective"....And I don't waste anyones fuel, because I hate driving, but I do see all your water running down the creek when I bike...!
Tom-5 posts by you and 155 comments since August 10th relating to water restrictions. Clearly a major public safety issue in Lincoln. But I noticed there was a knife incident and a gun incident in Lincoln today in addition to the 62 water calls. I'm with you and 1:54pm. People need to grow up.I empathize with the officers that have to deal with this malarky.
256
I've got a better idea for those rugged individualists who gauge their self-worth on the hue of their lawn...if you don't like having the police knocking on your door because you refuse to shut your sprinkler off, and you bear such animosity for this thing we call a municipal water system, then do the 'personal responsibility' thing and drill your own irrigation well for your property! Then you can water til your heart's content...or until you dry up your well.
I have several questions comments. I'd been wondering and had totally forgotten about your blog.
1)Do you geocache? I noticed the picture you posted is from Geocaching.com Pretty cool
2)It is okay to water vegetable gardens daily...right?
3)Has there been any thought to changing the water restrictions to more thought out things. Other cities I've been in seem to have a much better handle on water restrictions than just odd/even outdoor watering only. Things such as times you can water. After 7pm/before 9pm kind of thing. Citations for any water spilling on the sidewalk, not just because you're on the wrong day. Complete ban on home car washes, not just odd/even.
Thanks!
Melissa,
1. No
2. No
3. We already have the sidewalk thing, we might go to the home car wash ban, but only if matters get worse, and we've talked about the time slot, but the Lincoln Water System is concerned that the sudden surge at the designated our could cause system problems, although I can't recall exactly what those were.
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