Uneforcable water restrictions

Starting June 1, the City of San Diego will impose water restrictions that mandate when and how we can water our landscape (we just finished ripping out our lawn and putting in drought tolerant landscaping, see the picture below). While I’m not sure how much of the restrictions apply to us since we have drip irrigation, I set our sprinkler timer to water as required by the restrictions.

The water restrictions still let us fill our pool (but not overfill it). Last time I checked, it takes a lot more water to fill a pool than to water a lawn (of course, a pool should only have to be filled once a week to offset the evaporation of water). The main problem with the restrictions are basically unenforceable. Are the police (the ones the city can’t afford) going to stop fighting crime to issue citations for people watering their lawns? Who is going to remember when to water their lawns (odd numbered houses and even numbered houses water on different days).

We definitely have to do something about our water shortage, but these restrictions really aren’t going to do a whole lot. Maybe the city and county should have thought about population growth in our desert before approving more housing units like they’ve done in the last few years. We’re all going to pay for the mistakes of our politicians.