California moves to kill the lawn, save the water

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) - What's it going to take to get people to use a lot less water in drought-stricken California, the Technicolor landscape of lush yards, emerald golf courses and aquamarine swimming pools?

Residents may be about to find out as California imposes the first mandatory statewide water-use restrictions later this year.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered a 25 percent overall cutback in water use by cities and towns, but not farms, in the most sweeping drought measures ever undertaken by the nation's most populous state.

The crackdown comes as California and its nearly 40 million residents move toward a fourth summer of drought with no relief in sight. State reservoirs have a year's worth of water, and with record low snowfall over the winter there won't be much to replenish them. Wells in some parts of the state are going dry as groundwater levels fall.

On Thursday, retired secretary Brenda Johnson stood in the doorway of her Sacramento home contemplating her lovingly tended lawn and azalea bushes. Johnson did not love the idea of brown as the new green.

"With the money I put into it, I don't want it to go dry," said Johnson, who got a warning letter from the city last year for watering her front yard on the wrong day.

"I don't want a dead lawn," she said. "But change is hard, and you do adjust."

In Southern California's sunbathed city of Long Beach, homeowner Katherine Rusconi stood among the bright red, pink and yellow succulents and desert plants that make up her front yard, basking in the knowledge of being ahead of the game.

The city of Long Beach gave her $3,000 in rebates for ripping out her own lawn less than two years ago. Some of her neighbors have since followed her lead, making the block a showpiece of water-saving, wildlife-friendly yards.

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California moves to kill the lawn, save the water