One of the things people may not realize is that in Menlo Park we have several different water providers which procure water from several different sources. This ruling appears to only apply to customers of Menlo Park Municipal Water District. While the rules seem reasonable for all to follow, take note of where the person is before filing a complaint.

Why do they care when I water my garden, so long as I use no more than my (now reduced) share of water? I don't water my plants more than once a week anyway, less in cooler weather like this week, and my household consumption is well below average, so I feel I am doing my part already. Maybe I don't like wandering around my garden at midnight on Tuesdays with a flashlight and a hosepipe. Why can't I do it when I have time for it on Saturday morning?

@Missing the point - I can see what you're saying. The restriction on daytime watering makes sense, as it has more evaporation. The even/odd rule makes enforcement easier. I think they're thinking about automated system. We hand water most of our landscape once per month, but it'll be easy to forget which day of the week. I'm not sure why one of the two days can't be a weekend day. That's the problem with rules, there's exceptions where the rule makes no sense.

For all of the attention this has gotten - it seems to mean people have to cut 4% over last year. That's trivial.

When do the new restrictions go into effect? Reducing landscape watering to two days a week doesn't necessarily result in a reduction of water use. Will the total amount of water used by my household also be monitored in some way?

Typically, the watering restrictions are for use of sprinklers, not drip irrigation or hose use (with a shut-off nozzle). It would be good to get clarification.

If this rule is to be just for automated sprinkler systems, then I would withdraw my point, although nothing in the article suggests that is the case. I hope to be able to!

WRT to evaporation, yes, it makes sense to avoid the middle of a warm day, as I already do. However, there would be less evaporative effect at 8, 9 or even 10 in the morning of a typical summer day in MP than at 7 or 8 in the evening, when temperatures are considerably higher and there is often an onshore breeze. And that time in the morning is exactly when I like to water. It is also better for the plants not to be cool and damp overnight, which may encourage fungal infections.

Again, so long as you are demonstrably conserving water, as is readily enforceable from your meter reading, they should let you use your allocation when you like.

Does Menlo Park have its own greywater rules? I'm pretty sure California changed the law regarding laundry-to-landscape systems without a permit. I remember the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center hosted an event where the - I think it was the water district - showed how to install these systems. She may be incorrect about this, or Menlo Park may have their own rules.

What a joke, if you drive down to Gilroy and over to Monterey during the middle of the day, they are still running their above ground sprinklers in mid-day and we are still growing rice in the San Joaquin valley that we are subsidizing. We should be growing rice in Louisiana!