How ratepayers got hosed in the search for Southern California's Mythical Garden: part 1

'They're going to have to pry the hose out of my cold dead fingers,' MWDOC's water board member, Brett Barbre, told a reporter back in 2015

Note: Previously, this article incorrectly stated that a 2015 MWD turf replacement program would have saved 642,857/AF of water. The error has deleted as of 3:07 PM, June 20.

In 2015, after three years of severe drought and foot-dragging by the state’s 400 water agencies, Governor Jerry Brown mandated state-wide conservation standards designed to achieve a 25 percent reduction in the state’s overall water use.

The Governor’s plan increased water savings in the state by 28 percent at little if any inconvenience to residents of Orange County.

But it outraged Brett Barbre, who sat on the Board of Directors of the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC), a regional water wholesaler, and represented that agency on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD).

“They’re going to have to pry the hose out of my cold dead fingers,” he told PBS-SoCal reporter David Nazar.