I know I am going to get more than a few dirty looks for writing this letter, but oh well—desperate times call for desperate ideas! I moved here from L.A. about 14 years ago, and I was rather perplexed when I realized that if you had a well, you could use and waste as much water as you wanted to without being penalized. This is crazy and very unfair to the people and neighbors who are water wise, especially in the water crises that we are presently in!

I know of a guy who owns a construction business, and he owns a couple water trucks that hold 3,000 gallons of water. Since he happens to be fortunate enough to have a very high output well, he has been making a very good living selling water to his less fortunate neighbors. What I am trying to say is that we need regulations now (God forbid, that’s a terrible word around here for some folks) and a metering system on the wells, no different than people in the city. You pay for what you use. This isn’t about politics or property rights, because at the end of the day when our wells run dry, we are all gonna be S.O.L.

-- Kevin A. Lee - Santa Margarita