The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
NOTE: The excerpt below is from the April 14, 2010 BOTW archives.
The Public
Southern California has suffered a “sudden increase of water main breaks that damaged numerous homes, businesses and streets.” KCBS-TV reports that the problem was caused by the “conservation”–i.e., rationing–efforts of Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power:
DWP customers were restricted to watering their lawns on Mondays and Thursdays only, which caused everybody to water their lawns basically at the same time. As a result, water pressure dropped, and the pipes were submitted to more cycles of water pressure.
In other words, the maximum water pressure did not change, but the minimum did, and this cyclic pressure created fatigue on corroded pipes.
We got a kick out of the headlines on the KCBS Web site, though. The main headline reads, “DWP’s Water Rationing Blamed for Water Main Breaks.” But here’s the subheadline: “Report: Water Main Breaks Were Mainly Fault of Public.”
Stupid public. They should have known better than to follow the DWP’s idiotic rules.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.
