One reason why the Legislature barely passed the water bill last month was because many members hate Dallas. And they hate us because we use lots of water -- 30 percent more water per person than any other big city in the state.
I don't want to get into a discussion about whether we need the reservoir that was approved in the water bill. I don't know enough to have an opinion one way or the other. I do know, however, that we don't do enough to conserve water, as witnessed by my travels in and around Lakewood and East Dallas the past couple of weeks. This has been an exceptionally wet spring, with almost six inches so far this month. That's almost three times normal. Plus, we have had almost 27 inches of rain this year, about seven inches less than what we get all year.
So why are people still watering their lawns three and four times a week? Or when it's raining? And saying you're doing it because you want to is not a good reason.
A timely posting. Just today I met with Dale Groom of the Dallas County Texas Cooperative Extension
Service about this very subject. He made me aware of the WaterWise program which is promoting a variety of water conservation techniques readily available to homeowners. You can see the WaterWise Council of Texas website at http://www.waterwisetexas.org/ for a great deal of information, including Best Management Practice (BMP) information. The Dallas website is under construction and should be up soon.
He also mentioned Earth-Kind landscaping techniques which promote the use of drought tolerant plants that are well adapted to your area. (http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/earthkind/ekgarden2.html). We're not talking cacti and rocks or manicured weeds. There are lots of good, colorful options;lots of well adapted roses, for instance.
The other day, I was walking my dog and got caught in a downpour. Walking home through the rain, I can't tell you how many yards had their sprinkler systems running. What's up with that? The City of Dallas insists that I pay them for for the water I use every month. Doesn't everyone else have to do that also?
Posted by: Norman Alston | Jun 20, 2007 at 04:06 PM
It's been Dallas law for over 3 years now that you must have a working rain and freeze sensor on your sprinkler system. If you are walking by and see what you saw, call 311 and TURN THEM IN!
Posted by: Bill Kennedy | Jun 21, 2007 at 09:33 AM
This is dangerous ground, Bill (no pun intended). The last time we had a discussion about ratting out neighbors for water waste (http://backtalkeastdallas.typepad.com/back_talk/2006/11/watering_the_la.html), things got kind of nasty. For this blog, anyway.
Posted by: Jeff Siegel | Jun 21, 2007 at 09:40 AM
You've managed to hit two of my Dallas pet peeves in one blog. Idiots who water their lawn when it's raining and those fools from Code Compliance.
Posted by: DK | Jun 22, 2007 at 08:11 AM