How to take a great idea...

A proposed law would require new homes, larger developments and some redevelopments in Los Angeles to capture and reuse runoff generated in rainstorms.

...and turn it into a ruinous mess.

Under the ordinance, builders would be required to use rainwater storage tanks, permeable pavement, infiltration swales or curb bump-outs to manage the water where it falls. Builders unable to manage 100% of a project's runoff on site would be required to pay a penalty of $13 a gallon of runoff not handled there -- a requirement the Building Industry Assn. has been fighting.

In an arid climate like St Thomas, VI, homes are always built with cisterns that capture rain water for in-home use. Its a great idea that if water costs were properly apportioned, would probably be de riguer in large swaths of the country. Instead we get situations like this:

Behind all the bloated propaganda about California's five year drought lies a rather interesting truism. Water has never been naturally plentiful in California, but neither has milk. In fact, milk is much more difficult to "naturally" acquire than water (you don't have to squeeze an animal to get water), but California has never had to ration milk or send out "Milk Police." Why the difference? We all use more water than milk, but this is irrelevant to the issue. The answer is that one product, milk, is provided by a relatively free market, but, the other product, water, is "managed" by a deeply entrenched, monopolistic, government bureaucracy. California doesn't need government rationing, it needs to get rid of its Soviet-style water management system, and water would be as plentiful as milk.

No point in feeling superior though--even a red state like Utah has a crazy water system that costs an order of magnitude more than it should and actually encourage prolifigate uses rather than conservation--this in the second driest state in the nation (after Arizona).

Of course, in Utah, inefficient system or not, the point is to get water to the consumer. In California, the point is to use environmentalist religious fervor to generate tax revenues to pay six figure salaries to unionized prison guards, who kick back political contributions to elected offiicials.

The reality of this nonsensical ordinance is that new construction will be throttled and more businesses will be looking outside of California for expansion opportunities. Meanwhile, the millions of gallons of polluted run-off will continue to find its way to the ocean.

A sigh for what might have been...