Side effects

Last night, I noticed that the soap was not lathering.  Huh?  What happened to my soap?  Then I realized it wasn't the soap, it was the water!

We received significant rainfalls of .75" and then .5" in the last 72 hours.  I pulled this graphic from the Water Resources Precipitation Page.

I recalled that our local water district changes water supply depending on conditions (economic and natural).  The rainfall this week probably recharged our local aquifer just enough to enable us to draw (very hard) well water out of our underground aquifer instead of purchasing (moderately hard) imported river water.

To meet the needs of our customers in Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, and the Hollywood Riviera section of Torrance, we use a combination of local groundwater pumped from the West Coast groundwater basin and purchased surface water. The surface water is imported by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) from the Colorado River and the State Water Project in northern California.

Learn more about our aquifer and water recycling at World Water Day 2012 and Walking My Watershed.

We planted a line of 10 camellia bushes along the north facing edge of our back yard/patio. A portion of our neighbor's townhouse roof drains onto that area so it gets double the rainfall. The camellias responded well to the rain and cold weather. Stay tuned for pictures.