In a unanimous vote on Tuesday, the Santa Clara Valley Water District approved hiring up to 10 people to patrol the county in search of water wasters.
The $500,000 in appropriations will go toward hiring up to 10 “water cops” who will spend their time investigating complaints about wasted water.
“The bottom line is that we are just not getting the results we would like to see for water reduction,” Joan Maher, deputy operating officer for the Santa Clara Valley Water District, said to the San Jose Mercury News.
For folks wondering whether these cops will bear the authority of the law: they won’t. District spokesperson Marty Grimes stated that these employees would only deliver warnings to water wasters rather than issuing fines.
Warning will be given for water violations involving the washing down of driveways and sidewalks, excess runoff from landscape watering and using a hose with no nozzle to restrict the flow of water.
Read the full story at the San Jose Mercury News and CBS SF.