California is currently undergoing a severe drought, and it isn’t the first time. Los Angeles has been going through a drought for three years, and it is now the driest three-year period on record. These extreme droughts are having detrimental effects on the community, such as hotter weather, water and crop shortages, more disease (such as West Nile Virus carried by mosquitoes breeding in stagnant water) and a decrease in the health of livestock used for food. While some of these effects may be short-term, the rise of long-lasting droughts can lead to a chronic state. Droughts are also a contributing factor to the cause of wildfires. Despite the harmful effects, this drought record hasn’t stopped celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Kevin Hart and Sylvester Stallone from exceeding their water usage.
Lloyd Lee, a Breaking News Fellow based in Los Angeles for Insider, has provided numerous statistics on water usage. Hart’s 26-acre Calabasas property exceeded its budget by 519% or 117,000 gallons in June. Two of Kim Kardashian’s properties in Hidden Hills went over their budget by about 230,000 gallons, and Kourtney Kardashian exceeded the budget by about 101,000 gallons in a 1.86-acre property near Calabasas. Sylvester Stallone also went over budget on his 2.26-acre property by 544% or 230,000 gallons.
These high levels of water usage call for a change to hold these celebrities accountable. The Las Virgenes Water District attempted to enforce water restrictions on their customers by charging them with fines, but these fines weren’t much of an impact on the customers’ wealth. Cason Gilmer, the Virgenes Water District’s senior field customer service representative, created a new instinctive solution. Gilmer created a flow restrictor made from stainless steel. It is shaped like a disk and has a small hole in the center in order to decrease the amount of water flow coming from pipes and hoses. This restrictor can cut water flow from 30 gallons per minute to less than one gallon per minute. According to Guardian, Mike McNutt, a spokesperson for the Las Virgenes water district, said that adding a flow restrictor into the water pipe outside a customer’s residence takes only about 10 minutes, and the district adds a seal and a sign warning of a $2,500 fine if the device is tampered with. When a resident has exceeded their water limit by 150% at least four times since Dec. 2021, they are eligible for a water restrictor.
There are numerous ways to get out of using the device, such as signing a contract agreeing to minimize water usage. McNutt hopes that this device acts as a wake-up call to celebrities to speak up about water conservation and the effects of climate change. The rate of climate change is rapidly increasing, and it is taking an extreme toll on the planet. There are multiple ways to slow down the effects of climate change as it impacts our future.
Here is a resource to help California through this difficult time, and you can also learn more about how to conserve water.
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