City in Drought revisited

Following is a letter to the Editor of our local Victorville, Ca Daily press in the hopes I might stir up a little action amongst other readers like me facing incredible odds with the pending water regulations. I'm of course interested in your reaction

....but I'd also like to fwd a copy to "Our Town," the "Town of Apple Valley, California." They give an "E-mail" address of "Apple [email protected]," but I get a notification indicating it isn't an email address. Can one of you techs tell me what I'm doing wrong

Thanks all

Dear Town: I wonder if you'd mind forwarding this message to Town Council members Bishop, Cusak, Emick, Nassif, Stanton, etc. Thanks most kindly

Edited to sheepishly admit I must have inadvertently followed it with a spacebar or some such invisible keystroke because a2k's version of the add. works just fine


Every day I frantically encounter a new obstacle in just how I’m going to meet requirements of the new water regs, pleading by ‘phone with my two sons for ideas how to cope; jumping up at midnight to once again to update this letter. Exhaling a sigh, faced with Apple Valley Foothill County Water District Drought Restrictions (Effective June 1). Alas, “4th offense -- $500 fine…possible flow restrictor…or disconnection…” Come on guys, you can’t have these restrictions so relentless, so implacable.

More later about nighttime needs.

They’ll have “…odd number...irrigate Saturdays and Wednesdays…...even…Sundays and Thursdays.” Again may I point out that a typical water timer doesn’t know the day of the week and anyhow as I suggested in my May 22 letter, it would seem instead more logical to establish “ '…a random ‘two days a week...’ ...better averaging usage overall.” Besides, the notion of only two days at only 13 hours each entails problems with water pressure. Given 12 watering stations such as ours might require three or four stations to be on simultaneously, dropping pressure below a value required by the drippers.

That’s “…between…7 p.m. and 8 a.m….” To approximate the “two days a week” requirement you can easily set your timers to come on with a setting of "Every 3 days", then averaging 2.436 nights/week. But the homeowner with the larger property necessitating many watering stations will probably respond as I do, pointing out that while the battery water timer is very reliable, the thousands of feet of tubing feeding hundreds of drippers, isn’t.

In my own case, resetting six battery timers to come on at various hours of the night is entirely feasible. But to check each station at regular intervals you'd have to provide yourself with several alarm clocks, waking you three or four times each night according to the setting of each timer. (Incidentally, it can be done by installing the pressure gage at the end of each station, an abnormally low reading usually indicating a leak; so you’d still have to carry a flashlight.)

Assuming the new regs will even allow it, we might instead be advised to check these stations during the day, starting each timer manually for a short run; though of course it won’t predict a failure occurring later, at night. However because my six additional stations for watering shrubs and trees is done once every two weeks, they use a mechanical timer requiring to be set by hand each time. So I’d still have to run out there at night once or twice with my flashlight.

Inexorable? I am wondering if after June 1 we’ll each be visited four times a week by a water inspector carrying a taser, looking for violations. Although “Increased tiered rates can be adjusted for customers with excessive usage,” I’m wondering how “excessive” is defined, what’s the basis of comparison, and how many technicians working 8 hours a day for a week are needed to calculate it.

Edited to acknowledge "Water-saving plan on display” June 6: “…limited to three days a week ,” well, good, thanks fellas (even though that third day isn’t specified) our shallow-rooted vegetation is more likely to survive (while maybe we won’t have to run more than 2 stations at a time), but if “…leaks must be repaired with(in) three business days,” This means checking at least four of my 12 stations every day, more often if it’s decided later that “If more conservation is required…leaks will need to be repaired more quickly…..”

Incidentally my No. 1 Son suggests that some higher-priced timers might have provision for day of the week, which means however that 12 new timers might cost a fortune. Even so he doubts any could be set for a delay of two weeks; so apparently we’re back to nightly visits with that flashlight. So may we suggest to The Water Authority that for a nominal surcharge the homeowner with larger property be allowed to continue 7 days a week, in the daytime.


“It’s all just still overwhelming,... Keith Libby…said, “It’s just depressing….” Wow Keith, you can say that again!


Dale Hileman
Apple Valley

Yo S: This is (I hope) the very latest revision but you don’t need to read it because most is old hat. However if you do, any comment encouraged

Thanks