Hello fellow water activists!  

I got this email from the office of the Mayor and thought I would share my thoughts on it.  Maybe we can all start thinking a little differently and let the Mayor know what is important to us: 

From Mayor Jerry Sanders

The city of San Diego is set to receive $12.5 million in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants through the federal economic stimulus package. I’m proposing that a portion of the grant money be used for a major solar project in Balboa Park and would like the community’s input on this and other ideas for making the most of these funds.

If you’d like to weigh in, please join the city’s Intergovernmental Relations Department at one of the following public forums.  Both meetings will start at 6:00 p.m.

 

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

La Jolla/Riford Branch Library

7555 Draper Ave.

La Jolla, CA 92037

 

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Civic Center Concourse – Silver Room

202 C St.

San Diego, CA 92101

I'm definitely not against solar energy, but let's look at some simple numbers:

If the city took that $5 million and gave out $500 rebates for rainwater tanks, 10,000 people could install tanks.  If each of those people put in a 1500 gallon tank (which you can get for just over $500 in the best case scenario) that would be 15,000,000 gallons of water (maybe twice that depending on if people fill up their tanks more than once a year) that the city doesn't have to pay for from the Metropolitan Water district.  Instead he wants to use $5 million towards a $30 million project that will pay for 2000 residents to have electricity powered by solar energy.   Hmmmm...  sounds like we are putting money in someone's pocket but not solving anything on a large scale. 

Maybe I'm oversimplifying things, but can we start asking questions and putting the bug in someone's ear about this?  Let's talk about it and see if we can do something to change the way the government thinks about $$ allocation.