Or stop watering the grass?
Watering the grass isn't the issue. Residential consumption accounts for (last I heard) about 6% of water use in SoCal.
Agricultural is the big user at 80% use of all water brought in. And of that, almonds and walnuts use a ridiculous amount of water. Instead of brown lawns, perhaps they should focus on restrictions and improvements on agricultural water use where it could really have an impact. But they don't. They're gonna let the reservoirs run dry so people can snack on almonds.
Yes, there are farmers that need the water. But this isn't the "bread basket" of the country. There are many farms here. Many livelihoods depend on it, but why not a shift on WHAT is being farmed given the current situation? This continues, and there won't be anyone around in the area to buy those water gobbling walnuts and almonds. And when the population moves because there is no water, there will be no support systems for those farms (people), and they'll go tits up in short order. In many areas of the country the farming industry is what supports the community. Maybe not the case in SoCal entirely, but run SoCal out of water, and what do you have left? Farmers with dried up walnut and almond farms.
I likely understand not a lot of it, but what I do know leaves me shaking my head. Or maybe I'm off base and someone will correct me. I can live without almonds. Can't live without life sustaining type crops and water.
