Isn’t California the fifth largest economy in the world? I have to wonder, if it is so terrible to its citizens, why so many people want to live there.

How much will rationing actually affect your life on a day-to-day basis? Does it mean you can only take one shower a day or does it mean you can only take one shower a week?

People do waste water in an unsustainable way along with almost everything else in civilization. At some point someone will need to do something. It has been pointed out that trying to reason with people about some important things never convinces them to change. Change only comes by using force. Now there is a conversation starter!!

There is lot of other place with better quality of life. My city is growing and I am working on moving somewhere cheaper. I have never been to california but I believe in not fighting for scarce resources. When something get popular, I like to move on to some thing better. I believe, there is always something better out there, and it have always work for me.

What's next one asks? Our betters advancing bureaucracy on our behalf never rest. Regulation begets avoidance. Avoidance begets increased regulation in a never ending process of devolving self-digestion.

Eventually life itself becomes rationed for the many by the few.

[bigthink.com]

I love California and rationing makes sense in light of fact that water is our most precious resource. If folks don't want to live in a highly regulated state, Texas has a lot of space.

Actually, the reservoirs are controlled by the California State Water Resources Control Board. Los Angeles, is where I live, is owned by the people, and the government entity who manages it is the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. I don't know of any private water companies that serve the public, as even the most tiniest city, which buys electricity from private corporations, have their own water department.

Also, this is the Washington Times, the owner is the Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moo. Nanny state? I think not, as the people voted the representatives in to enforce the rules and regulations, and if it's truly a nanny state, as the religious kooks are talking about, then they would address the mega-farms who use water to moisten the lands and the frackers who use tons of water to remove oil from the ground.

Yikes! High cost of living means a lot of multi families living in homes that technically are meant for one. I assume that if a house has one water bill it still gets treated the same no matter how many occupants. California is in a crisis for sure.

With regard to laying all the responsibility on the state/governor to build dams, I misspoke. It was mentioned that the Fed is involved, however, according to this FEMA chart (https://www.fema.gov/dam-ownership-united-states), the majority of dams in the US are privately owned, so I think private dam construction should also be undertaken. Also, I'm no expert on rainfall/drought, but as I said in a reply to a comment here, in my area, at least, existing water coffers were completely filled by seasonal rain. So much so, in fact, that water was released (wasted).

Citizens in this state DO practice water conservation as a matter of course. Are there abusers, absolutely, but I'm sure they represent a tiny fraction of the population and certainly not enough to justify this.

I sincerely believe a large part of the solution, in concert with practicing water conservation and repairing old and leaky delivery systems (as was suggested in the Bee article) is to increase our storage capacity. Squeezing citizens through legislation is not the answer.

It sure as hell beats the f*** out of Nanny state has no water. Welcome to overpopulation it sucks for everybody. You could have a neighbor that just turns his hose on and leaves it all day long wasting water because that's his right.

If you hate the nanny state so much, it's simple; just collect your own rainwater and live off that and what you can bucket back from your local stream. And don't forget to flush your toilet straight onto the garden because sewage pipes are only for socialists - your lawn will love you.

Is this not a more fair way of doing it? I’m being honest here, I’m pretty ignorant on the subject as I have plenty of water where I live.

I have lived in California since 1985... the drought here in SoCal is really bad... we have to do something...

Good for California. If it has to be a "nanny state" it's because some of its residents are too selfish to restrain themselves. Good for California for also opening its multicultural doors to immigrants. You are all free to head to Louisiana and Alabama, where poor schools, Republicans, and the Klan are fixtures.

So, that applies to business and corporate citizens too? or once again, the suburban bunnies