California Governor Jerry Brown issued the state’s first-ever mandatory restriction on water usage on April 1, requiring households to cut back on their water usage by 20 percent. Brown cited everyday usages of water, such as long showers and watering the lawn, as major sources of water waste while issuing no regulations for the biggest water hogs of all: big agriculture, big oil, and bottled water companies.
Large commercial farmers use up to 80 percent of the state’s water supply. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the beef industry alone uses over 2,000 gallons of water just to produce one pound of beef, oil companies use a water intensive process called “fracking” to extract oil, and bottled water companies such as Nestlé make billions off bottled water sales using California public water supply.
All of this goes unmentioned and unregulated while my household could be fined up to $500 daily for watering the garden or taking too many long showers.
I’m not saying that California shouldn’t have any water restrictions. The state is in the fourth year of one of the worst droughts on record and that should be taken very seriously. Households should cut back on water usage however they can, but the amount of water that I use taking a 10-minute shower is miniscule in comparison to the thousands of gallons used on a daily basis by these billion dollar industries that have no regulations.
The governor needs to take aim at the companies that are draining the state dry instead of directing regulations at individual households. Take a real look at who is doing the harm and at what cost. Who suffers when we leave corporations to do whatever they’d like and use as much as they’d like while ordinary citizens are regulated and fined.
The environmental and economic consequences are too great to allow the greed of certain industries to overshadow the welfare of the people and the land.
Britt Hart is a Tower staff writer. Email her at bmoniaeh(at)yahoo.com.