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 He heard the scofflaws before he saw their lush green lawns amid the
otherwise parched turf. The buzz of a sprinkler system gave them
away on a day that the city, desperate to save water amid
California's ongoing drought, had forbidden watering.
"If I can get a good picture - if there's a lot of water - I'll cite
them," he said.
California is in the third year of a devastating drought that has
led farmers to fallow nearly half a million acres of cropland,
threatened fish hatcheries and shrunk drinking water supplies for
some communities.
To get people to conserve, many municipalities and regional water
agencies have hired "water cops" like Brown to enforce state
conservation rules.
Cities have even asked people to turn their neighbors in, and some
have created smartphone apps to make the process easier.
Brown, 46, a father of four who was hired by the city as a meter
reader, said he picked this area because he has fielded numerous
complaints from neighbors about water wasters.
Camera and citation book in hand, he parked the car a few houses
down and got out, walking swiftly to the house where the sprinklers
were on. A flash illuminated the building's facade, then all was
dark again.
Brown headed back to the car and wrote up the citation. A check of
his laptop showed that the residents had not been cited before, so
instead of a fine of up to $500, they would get a warning. On a
second offense, they would have to attend a meeting on how to save
water. Third time, a fine.
The city of Sacramento has about a half-dozen employees enforcing
conservation rules. Like Brown, they go out on Friday mornings
before dawn, patrolling neighborhoods. When they're not patrolling,
they field phone calls from residents turning in their neighbors,
hopping in their cars to check out serious reports on the spot.
Water use in the city dropped 25 percent in August over the same
month in 2013, the most recent month for which information is
available, state data showed.
Statewide, residents and businesses cut water use by 11.5 percent in
August over the comparable 2013 period, enough to fill nearly 40,000
Olympic-size swimming pools.
Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control
Board, credits new rules and tougher enforcement with much of the
change.
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"Regulations make better results than voluntary exhortations," she
said. "People want to know that everybody else is doing it."
In August, the water resources board implemented statewide rules
that prohibit watering gardens enough to cause visible runoff,
hosing down driveways or asphalt, and operating non-recirculating
fountains.
Regulators also allowed municipalities to set mandatory cutbacks and
levy fines against those who do not comply.
In Los Angeles, the city has received 4,400 reports of water wasters
this year, resulting in 2,200 warning citations, said Michelle
Vargas, a spokeswoman with the Los Angeles Department of Water and
Power.
L.A. has kept one water cop on the beat full-time since the state's
last big drought in 2009, but it added three more this summer after
the new statewide regulations went into effect.
The Southern California city of Long Beach is offering residents a
water-waster app for their smartphones, making snitching quick and
easy by allowing users to report neighbors and businesses for hosing
down sidewalks, watering during the heat of the day or having a
break or leak in their water lines.
Sometimes, Brown says, reports from vindictive neighbors lead him to
visit a property only to find that no violation has taken place.
"I tell them I'm not going to cite you just because they call on
you," said Brown, who carefully documents every case with
photographs and a brief report. "There has to be evidence."
(Editing by Douglas Royalty)
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