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About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add...  (More)

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Drought demands reductions

Uploaded: May 20, 2014
You know the drought is serious when the Dublin San Ramon Services District, which treats sewage from Pleasanton, Dublin and portions of San Ramon, makes the evening news recently with its virtually free recycled water.
The district is charging just $10 per tanker truck load for the recycled water and will provide it for free to residential customers with a water barrel to take it home who promise only to use it for irrigation. The recycled water already is used to irrigate parks in Dublin and the Dougherty Valley portion of San Ramon. It is utilized on the Dublin Ranch and the Bridges golf courses so conditions there will be excellent this summer regardless of the heat. Livermore has used recycled water for years on its Las Positas courses.
For other golf courses, it will be a balancing act.
Pleasanton will be taking full advantage of the DSRSD recycled water, according to Daniel Smith, the city's operations director. Smith indicated that two tanker trucks will be making eight round trips each per day to move the DSRSD water to the city's Callippe Preserve course that is located southeast of the city well out of easy reach of a recycled water line. When the course was built, it was designed so it can use recycled water.
The Castlewood Country Club, which uses well water supplied through a long-standing contract with the city and county of San Francisco, is planning to convert fairways on its Valley course to Bermuda, a hardy grass that requires less water than other varieties.
For residents, particularly those with big landscaped yards with lots of grass, it will not be fun. Unlike other agencies that established tiered rates, Pleasanton is requiring a 25 percent cut for everyone, regardless of how careful prior practices had been when using water. The financial hit can be steep if residents do not meet the 25 percent reduction.
The city is leading with action—finally removing the grass surrounding the city offices on Main Street and replacing it with native landscaping. Both DSRSD and the Zone 7 water agency have had demonstration drought landscaping surrounding their buildings.
Local Journalism.
What is it worth to you?

Comments

Posted by Right, a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood,
on May 20, 2014 at 10:40 am

Obviously the Gore-Dolts are cooking the books, distorting the facts, lying about the numbers. Now they're convincing us that we're in a drought? Notice all the government activity, and at increased tax payer expense. What happens at the end of the day? Government is breathing further down our necks in an effort to control us one and all. Trust me. It will rain in a few days, we'll all be able to golf again, but the government involvement will not be lifted. Its United Nations protruberance all over again.


Posted by Conway Thurman, a resident of Walnut Creek,
on May 22, 2014 at 10:34 am

No, Mr. right -- the drought is Real -- BUT you're correct that the government is to blame for it! It's right here in print: Web Link Yup -- it's that extra hour of daylight savings that does it.

Maybe you and Chris Hill could get together for a nice afternoon drool.


Posted by already conserve, a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood,
on May 23, 2014 at 9:37 am

The City has not cut back on the watering at all, or nearly enough, at many parks. The sports park still has swampy areas and the street median watering still sprays all over the streets. Hacienda business park is looking nice and green and we all know that not a single lawn will turn brown in Ruby Hill, they will just pay the fines.

Telling those of use who have always conserved that we will be penalized while those who have always wasted can easily now cut back is going to be impossible to accept. I used a TOTAL of 2 units of water for the first 4 months of 2013 -- tell me exactly how I can cut that by ANY percentage, let alone 25%. Yet my neighbors water their lawns (and much of the sidewalks) every day. Even now. Cutting back from extreme waste to this year's 75% of 2013 use is a no brainer, no effort deal for them.


Posted by San Ramon Observer, a resident of San Ramon,
on May 23, 2014 at 1:26 pm

San Ramon Observer is a registered user.

Already Conserve,

I agree. Those of us who already use less water should not be forced to cut back on what we already cut back on. It should be easy to tell a low water consumer from a high water consumer. Instead of making an across the board 25% cut (or whatever level), set a maximum residential water use level that would cut 25% off the top. Those of us who already fall below that level would not need to make any more cuts.

I recommend attending a Zone 7 meeting and bringing this up. The Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD), Pleasanton, and Livermore get their water from Zone 7. There's a Zone 7 election coming up. Nobody pays much attention to these. Contact the candidates running and see if any are willing to make these changes to make it easier for folks like us to save water without being punished for it.

Roz


Posted by Linda Krafty, a resident of Pleasanton Middle School,
on May 23, 2014 at 3:32 pm

Why are we not seeding the clouds anymore?


Posted by already conserve, a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood,
on May 23, 2014 at 7:43 pm

Roz, If I thought that there was any chance of progress I would waste an evening at a Zone 7 meeting. They have already made up their minds and it has nothing to do with fairness or reality. The long time water wasters will prevail. Frankly, I can afford the fees and the penalties and plan to make no further changes. Two units of water in a four month cycle is practically no water use at all. They can shove their mandates wherever they want I will simply continue as usual and pay the bill.


Posted by H2O Watch, a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood,
on May 29, 2014 at 1:32 pm

Look into the Zone 7 past history. Fortunately, the same people are no longer there. Years ago they overcharged residents for water. A couple of guys discovered the problem -they got "hush money to keep quiet." (Settled out of court). Residents only received a small portion of what they were overcharged for water.


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