The drought you've read about in California hasn't ended. It's only gotten worse. Recently,
California's State Water Resources Control Board released per capita water use data. According to
Todd Woody over at mashable:
From September to October, residents of Rancho Santa Fe, a San Diego County enclave often listed as one of the nation's richest zip codes, used 584.4 gallons of water per person. Per day.
That'a a lot. Like crazy a lot. For example, bucking the trend by using only 45.7 gallons of water (per person) per day is San Francisco. Los Angelians use 92.8 gallons per person a day. But:
The exclusive town of Hillsborough, home to many of Silicon Valley's movers and shakers, turned on the taps to the tune of 290 gallons per day. (In nearby Menlo Park, though, residents only consumed 55.8 gallons a day.) And residents of the usually water-rich Sierra Nevada mountain town of Truckee consumed 309 gallons of water per person.)
[...]
But overall, California's biggest water hogs live in Southern California and usage tends to track bank accounts. Each Beverley Hills resident, for instance, used 285.6 gallons of water a day last month compared to 49.7 gallons for those residing in East Los Angeles.
[...]
Each Palm Springs resident splashed around 378.5 gallons a day.
Holy moly. Just to illustrate, in yet another way, how bad the water situation is in California, and how telling the wealthy's attitude towards resources are,
a new desperation for water is surfacing: Thievery...of water.
From high-profile heists in Modesto, where six homeowners were fined $1,500 for allegedly taking water from a canal, to the Sierra town of North San Juan, where authorities are trying to figure out who robbed a fire department tank, a drought-heightened demand for water has fueled something of a statewide market for stolen water.
“Somebody could be accessing it to sell to people,” said Jennifer Allen of the Contra Costa Water District, where some of the thefts have occurred. “It could also be a resident whose well has gone dry … or for construction.”
People working with water and people watering their lawns and:
[...] a contractor recently got a permit from the East Bay Municipal Utility District to use water from a hydrant at a construction site. Instead, the contractor filled swimming pools, officials said. The permit was revoked.
Nobody epitomizes the narcissism of the American way like the rich.