*You have to wonder what Exxon-Mobil employees think when the see scenes like this. Do they have some special Creationist switch in their heads where massive droughts are caused by flying spaghetti monsters?
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/08/25/0825sprinklers.html
AUSTIN WATER UTILITY
Workers prowl the streets for water wasters
New restrictions mean hefty fines for violations.
By Jeremy Schwartz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Peter Varga steers the cloud-white, Austin Water Utility Toyota Prius into the Bouldin Creek neighborhood and begins his search. "I'm going to open the windows," he announces. "You've got to be able to hear it. Sometimes you can't see it."
It's the first day of Austin's Stage 2 drought water restrictions and Varga is hunting water wasters.
Beginning Monday, water violations such as sprinkling on the wrong day no longer resulted in warnings and teaching moments for wayward residents. Instead, a team of roving investigators like Varga began giving $475 citations for the first offense. By the end of next week, utility officials hope to have a full staff of investigators — a mix of city workers and up to 15 temporary workers — patrolling 24 hours a day.
Varga says the most frequent culprits are automatic sprinkler systems used by residents at unauthorized times, so he's keeping his ears pricked for the tell-tale "tick-tick-tick" sound. "You can hear them pretty good, especially with the Prius when it's just operating on battery power," he says. (((Yeah, he's listening for dripping water from his hybrid Prius. I started counting the ironies and ran out of fingers.)))
As he drives through the neighborhood on another 100-degree day, yellowed, fried and stunted lawns dot the landscape. Every so often he passes a lush, verdant lawn that's obviously been carefully maintained by owners.
Varga says an alarming number of residents have automatic irrigation systems that they don't know how to manage. "Many times people don't know how to set the controller," he says. "Many times they're not aware of when they're going off, so there could be broken sprinkler heads and they could not be aware of it."
As he prowls the streets of South Austin, Varga is also looking for other water waste, like water running down the curb for more than 50 feet (a violation if it came from watering a lawn) or water pooling up higher than a quarter-inch.
In Travis Heights, he spots water pouring down the street for more than 100 feet, coming from a home being renovated. He takes out his camera and a notebook and looks for the offender....
