California drought: Does shaming water use work to help conserve? The Stevens Creek Reservoir in Cupertino is part of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Water levels are worryingly low.
Lea Suzuki/The ChronicleAmid a third painfully dry year, the Bay Area’s biggest water retailer began releasing the names of customers using “excessive” amounts of water this week, a practice that may soon tee up hundreds of households for humiliation and shame.
The move, by the East Bay Municipal Utility District, harkens back to last decade’s drought when several of California’s rich and famous, including such beloved stars as Giants great Buster Posey, Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi and comedian Amy Poehler, were outed for their lack of restraint at the tap.
Twitter and YouTube became bastions for scorning heavy water users. Video posts spotlighted obscenely large, green lawns, showpiece swimming pools and even water misters that some people use to cool off, often accompanied with the address of the allegedly wasteful property and the hashtag #droughtshaming.
East Bay utility officials, who say they just want to save water this year, maintain that their intent in releasing customer identities is not to ridicule anyone. In fact, officials stress that they’re not the ones publicizing any names. It’s the district’s policy, which sets a limit on how much water households can use, that makes the identity of violators a matter of public record and therefore fair game to others, including The Chronicle.
However, even as district officials distance themselves from the public outing of customers, they’re benefiting from it.
“The public records component can be very effective in some cases,” acknowledged district spokesperson Andrea Pook, referring to changes in behavior that the utility witnessed last decade after the names of water scofflaws made the papers.
One of the biggest water users to come to light then was Billy Beane, executive vice president of the Oakland A’s and subject of the Oscar-nominated film “Moneyball.” The sports icon was reported to have been using nearly 6,000 gallons of water a day at his Danville estate, more than 20 times as much as the district’s average household.
Oakland Athletics exec Billy Beane laughs with others before a ceremony honoring a 20-game winning streak by 2002 A’s before a game in Oakland in August. Beane was on a list of excessive water users in the last drought and said at the time that he was “more than displeased and embarrassed” by the usage.
Scott Strazzante, Staff Photographer / The ChronicleOnce his consumption was widely broadcast, Beane promised to do better.
“We are more than displeased and embarrassed by the usage and are taking immediate action,” he said in a statement at the time.
Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board during the last drought and now a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program, is not a fan of drought-shaming but says it works.
“No amount of money or penalty is going to get a very rich person to think about it,” Marcus said. “These are people often who have multiple homes. They may not live there and often don’t see their bills. Sometimes shaming is your best and only option.”
The East Bay Municipal Utility District’s current cap on water use, like most prior rationing programs, has a very high threshold, meaning it takes a lot of water to break the law. The roughly 1,646 gallons per day limit, which is enforced over a two-month billing cycle, is about eight times what the district’s average household uses.
A drain near an Orinda property that is on the list of excessive water users.
Samantha Laurey, Freelance / Special to The ChronicleMarcus says targeting these heavy water users in various ways is both highly effective in reducing an agency’s total consumption and the right thing to do from an ethical standpoint. If there’s only so much water to go around, she said, people should share.
“It plays to our sense of fairness,” she said.
Records obtained Tuesday from the East Bay Municipal Utility District show that just three customers exceeded the district’s water cap since it took effect this spring. However, the scant number of names is a product of the agency’s billing protocols, not necessarily consumer thrift.
Only information from three days of bills was provided by the district, which sends out its invoices on a continuous basis over two months. Water officials expect to name between 200 and 300 customers when the records are released again in late October.
California drought: Should we shame those who use too much water? One of the three properties that is on the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s list of excessive water users released on Tuesday.
Samantha Laurey, Freelance / Special to The ChronicleThe district serves more than 1.4 million people in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, including Oakland and Berkeley.
The Chronicle is not identifying the district’s three recent violators because they are not public figures, though it published a photograph of one of the properties — a large, gated home with a sprawling yard in Orinda.
At least one reader, among many who do not support the practice of drought-shaming, said even a photo like this one goes too far.
“You should take a moment and think of how it would feel for your home to be published and targeted in this context, and how you might feel about the safety of your family and small children in that situation,” the reader wrote. “A little bit of empathy can go a long way in today’s world.”
Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
