One of my reasons for joining the Angeles Chapters Water Committee has to do with a strong interest in water Since Southern California is at best a semi-arid region, I hold water conservation to be highly important. I have lived my life only in the South Bay, Santa Barbara and Las Vegas. Therefore, all I know is a near (or outright) desert environment, and places that have a habit of importing and wasting water. In the Water Committee, the lesson preached is conservation is the best way to go, since our imported water is not guaranteed. An. earthquake anywhere near Tehachapt for example could knock out the Los Angeles Aqueduct. People typically find it untimely especally after this past wet winter and on the particular rainy day I'm writing this (5/17) to worry about conserving water The process of doing the water scorecard involved reading city (or water district) conservation, ordinances to see how they deal with short term drought and long term conservation measures, using critera such as lawn watenng restrictions (short term) and prohibiting single pass cooling systems (long term). From my South Bay viewpoint, I was disappointed, although I cannot be surprised, at all the yellow (poor) and red (worst) scores The Palos Verdes area (particularly Palos Verdes Estates) scores were not surprising, since much of PVE looks like Sherwood Forest I am proud of the Beach Cities-Hermosa and Manhattan-for their high scores, for they are both forward thinking. Other things I learned: In order to really make progress on water conservation, it will most likely have to be codified (sad but true), we may even need to do incentives before anything is codified (in order to do a gradual transition). In all, while I know how to read land use arid zoning ordinances, I now have a greater understanding of how to read the section of water ordinances. Another important skill to add to the resume, along with research and analysis.