Water Policy in California

I found your editorial on water very interesting. However, you do your readers no favors by not encouraging each one of them to learn wise water use.

We recently moved to the area from Northern California and the perceptions of the North that the average Southern Californian is a water-waster is accurate. People in the North had to learn hard lessons during the drought years of the mid-’70s. We had to learn that rainfall is neither predictable nor guaranteed. We had to stop flushing toilets, watering lawns, installing swimming pools and had to use paper plates, water restrictors in the shower, suds-savers in the laundry, and also had to pay a premium price for what little water we did use.

Meanwhile, we watched as our Southern California neighbors hosed down driveways and sidewalks and heard of a few of the people spout off that the drought was a political myth. People in the North still see the people of the South as water pigs, and we are. Northern Californians will willingly share their water and it is vital to do so for the agricultural interests in this area. However, few farmers waste water and there are more city dwellers using more than their share.

Until the individual resident learns that water is not something to waste, the North will turn out in large numbers to defeat new proposals, and even though this area is now my home, my vote will be with them.

NANCY K. DAFFERN

Irvine