For the first time in California history, the governor is ordering mandatory restrictions on water usage, calling for a 25-percent statewide reduction in urban water use.  It’s because of years of drought that have left normally snow-covered peaks as bare as Vin Diesel’s head, and reservoirs filled to a fraction of normal.

California Governor Jerry Brown announced the plan at Echo Summit in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, near Lake Tahoe.  Usually, there’d be well more than a meter and a half of snow up there.  Today, there’s nothing.  Not a patch of snow to be found, and that’s the first time that’s ever happened in recorded history.

“We are standing on dried grass, and we should be standing in five feet of snow,” said Governor Brown, “People should realize we’re in a new era.  The idea of your nice little green grass getting lots of water everyday – a that’s going to be a thing of the past.”

So, Brown is unleashing a wide range of water-saving directives in addition to the 25 percent urban saving plan:  It calls for boosting local enforcement to prevent water waste, requiring metering on offending businesses; mandating drip irrigation at new construction; cracking down on farmers who illegally divert water from irrigation canals; and investing in new water-saving technologies.  Local governments that will have to implement these rules are scrambling to figure out how it will get done.

It means big changes for golf courses, public and private pools, and the suburban status symbol – a lush green lawn.  That stuff is going away in much of the state.