He approached two culprits. Rather than slapping them with fines, Upton offered to change the settings on their sprinkler systems. "I don't want to crack down on them and be their Big Brother," said Upton, who works for the water conservation unit of Sacramento's utilities department. "People don't waste water on purpose. They don't know they are wasting water."
At least 45 water agencies throughout California, including Sacramento, are imposing and enforcing mandatory restrictions on water use as their supplies run dangerously low. Sacramento is one of the few bigger agencies actively patrolling streets for violators and encouraging neighbors to report waste.
They teach residents to avoid hosing down driveways, overwatering lawns or filling swimming pools. While gentle reminders are preferred, citations and fines can follow for repeat offenders.
"We do have the stick if people don't get it," said Kim Loeb, natural resource conservation manager in Visalia, a city of 120,000 people that has hired a part-time worker for night patrols and reduced the number of warnings from two to one before issuing $100 fines.
Mandatory restrictions aren't as widespread as in previous droughts, even among the drier parts of Southern California. One reason is more cities are conserving and making it expensive for residents to guzzle water.
Sacramento, where about half the homes are unmetered, is deploying the state's most aggressive water patrols to compensate. In February, the city of 475,000 deputized 40 employees who drive regularly for their jobs, such as building inspectors and meter readers, to report and respond to water waste. Of them, six are on water patrol full-time.
Providing a boost to their efforts is a campaign asking residents to report neighbors and local businesses breaking the rules. In the first three months of this year, Sacramento has received 3,245 water waste complaints, compared to 183 in the same period last year.
"There are tons of eyes out there watching everywhere," said Upton, looking at a computerized map of suspected offenders throughout the city.
