Letters to the Editor: These are the only ways to save water, but we’ll never do it

To the editor: Decades ago, experts started publicizing that green areas shouldn’t be watered during the heat of the day. This has never been a secret. (“Californians urged to save water as state faces dismal snowpack in Sierra Nevada,” April 1)

I have been living on my bike now for six years, traveling around the West. I frequently pass houses and businesses (including government offices) where sprinkler systems or hoses are watering lawns and sidewalks in the middle of the day. This also includes public parks. The worst offenders of unnecessary water usage for lawns are churches and municipal parks and recreation departments.

This is not science. Simply put, Americans are spoiled and continue to lack any interest in treating the planet with respect unless it makes them money.

Until conserving water generates revenue, this country will continue to ignore the obvious no matter how frequently the media report on the situation.

Cheryl Kline, Palm Desert

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To the editor: Jared Blumenfeld, California’s environmental protection secretary, inaccurately said of the current devastation to the state’s salmon stocks and other wildlife due to mismanagement of state rivers: “The system is collapsing quicker than the laws and regulations that exist can manage or heal that system.”

That is simply not true.

The problem is that Gov. Gavin Newsom has tied the hands of the regulators to ensure they don’t save salmon and the environment because doing so would upset a water rights system in California in place for more than 150 years.

This system was established by those who crushed the Indigenous population and simply seized the land and water as their own. They’re also crushing the salmon industry.

Not regulating to address this is akin to not regulating the state’s big electrical utilities. Who thinks that’s a good idea?

John McManus, Pacifica, Calif.

The writer is president of the Golden State Salmon Assn.