A new investigation has found that Woodside residents need to reduce their water use by 35 percent or risk heavy fines.
KQED's California Report states that Woodside, nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, is one of the state's "top water wasters," on par with large Southern California cities such as Los Angeles, and must cut use by 35 percent or the water district could incur daily fines of as much as $10,000.
According to the 2013 U.S. Census, Woodside has a population of 5,481 people. Despite suggestions from concerned members of the community, the town has not yet put forth a water conservation plan.
But the urgency of the problem hasn't been internalized by all of Woodside's citizens just yet, if the man on the street interviewed by The California Report is any indication.
“I don’t know whether we’re gonna have to let it go brown or not,” the aptly named Joe Greenback told the radio station on watering his large lawn. “We haven’t yet, but we’re thinking in those terms how we can conserve or cut back. We’ve got a large investment in landscaping that I don’t want to lose. It’d have to get a lot more serious than it is now.”
