加州穷人节水仍受罚 富人安享水景豪宅

APPLE VALLEY, Calif. — Outside her two-story tract home in this working-class town, Debbie Alberts, a part-time food service worker, has torn out most of the lawn. She has given up daily showers and cut her family’s water use nearly in half, to just 178 gallons per person each day.

苹果谷——戴比縠伯茨(Debbie Alberts)是一名兼职餐饮业服务人员，在她家位于工薪阶层社区的两层楼房屋之外，她已经把大部分的草皮铲掉了。艾伯茨不再每天洗澡，也将家庭成员的用水量减半，限制为每人一天178加仑。

A little more than 100 miles west, a resident of the fashionable Los Angeles hills has been labeled “the Wet Prince of Bel Air” after drinking up more than 30,000 gallons of water each day — the equivalent of 400 toilet flushes each hour with two showers running constantly, with enough water left over to keep the lawn perfectly green.

在她家西边100多英里处，洛杉矶周边时尚的山丘上，有一位居民被誉为“贝莱尔的水王子”，他每天使用超过3万加仑（约110立方米）的水——相当于每小时冲400次马桶、两支莲蓬头不断出水，剩下的水还能让草坪保持完美翠绿。

Only one of them has been fined for excessive water use: Ms. Alberts.

两户人家中，只有一户因为过度用水而受罚：艾伯茨的家。

Four years into the worst drought in California’s recorded history, the contrast between the strict enforcement on Californians struggling to conserve and the unchecked profligacy in places like Bel Air has unleashed anger and indignation — among both the recipients of the fines, who feel helpless to avoid them, and other Californians who see the biggest water hogs getting off scot-free.

这场加州有历史纪录以来最严重的旱灾已经持续到了第四年，政府对节约水资源的加州居民严格执法、但却放纵贝莱尔(Bel Air)等地挥霍无度的人。收到罚单的人不知道如何避免受罚，因而感到无助，其他加州人则眼睁睁看着最浪费水的人免受处罚，两相对比让这些人酝酿出了怒气和愤慨。

This wide disparity in enforcement is testimony to California’s vast and chaotic system for moving water from reservoirs and underground systems to homes. There are 411 separate water districts — some public, some private — and each of these local utilities has been charged with devising its own rules for saving water during the drought.

这种执法不公显示出，加州将水从水库或地下水系统，输送到家庭中的供水系统不仅庞大，而且混乱。加州共有411个供水区，有些是公立的，有些是私立的，这些地方供水区都有责任在干旱时期制定自己的节水规则。

All of the districts are grappling with a mandatory order from the State of California to reduce water consumption by up to 36 percent. The contrasting approaches taken by Apple Valley and Los Angeles illustrate how differently communities are enforcing the order — some with lenience, others with punishments.

所有供水区都因为加州参议院(State of California)的一项命令而手忙脚乱，该命令要求他们减少36%的用水量。苹果谷和洛杉矶的案例显示出不同社区是如何执行命令的——有些手段宽松，有些严厉惩罚。

In Apple Valley, the private utility company that supplies water to most of this town in the high desert east of Los Angeles has been ordered to cut back 28 percent. The utility, Apple Valley Ranchos, responded by applying “drought surcharges” to households that exceed a standard monthly water allotment. Nearly a third of the 20,000 customers have been assessed fines, which can run to hundreds of dollars.

苹果谷位于洛杉矶东部的高地荒漠上。为该市大部分地区供水的那家私营公用事业公司接到命令，要减少28%的用水量。名为苹果谷兰乔斯(Apple Valley Ranchos)的这家公司想出的应对措施是，对每月超出了用水限额的家庭，征收“干旱附加罚款”。在该公司的2万用户中，近三分之一被罚过款。罚款可能高达数百美元。

Ms. Alberts, whose husband is disabled and not working, supports them and their two children on an income of about $22,000 a year. She received a surcharge of $79.66 on her last two-month water Bill, raising the total above $330.

艾伯茨的丈夫是残疾人，没有工作。她要用一年约为2.2万美元的收入，养活自己和丈夫及两个孩子。在上一张每两月寄送一次的水费单上，她收到了79.66美元的附加罚款。这使她家的罚款总金额超过了330美元。

“It’s impossible to get under the line,” said Ms. Alberts, 58, whose property is about half an acre and was once surrounded by greenery. “We wash clothes once a week. We flush every third time. Sometimes we go to the laundromat because we’re afraid.”

“不可能控制在标准线以下，”58岁的艾伯茨说。“我们一周洗一次衣服，每用三次马桶冲一次水，有时候还会去自助洗衣店，因为害怕水用超了。”她家的房子占地约半英亩，周围一度都是绿色植物。

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the city’s superrich have been able to keep multiple pools filled. Neighborhoods like Bel Air are verdant, as if the drought were happening somewhere else.

与此同时，在洛杉矶，超级富豪能够让多个游泳池装得满满的。贝莱尔等地草木葱翠，仿佛干旱是发生在别的某个地方。

The top 10 residential water users in Los Angeles collectively used more than 80 million gallons of water in the year that ended April 1. The “Wet Prince” topped the list at 11.8 million gallons during that time — enough for about 90 typical California families — at an estimated cost of $90,000, as first reported by the California-based Center for Investigative Reporting.

在4月1日结束的上一年里，洛杉矶排名前十的居民用水大户，合计用水量超过8000万加仑水。如总部位于加州的调查报道中心(Center for Investigative Reporting)最先报道的那样，在此期间，排在第一位的“水王子”的用水量是1180万加仑——够大约90个加州普通家庭使用——水费估计为9万美元。

But none of the city’s top water hogs have been fined. Instead, they have been insulated from financial penalties: Because less-affluent residents of Los Angeles have conserved, the city is easily meeting its 16 percent mandated reduction and has had no need to force its wealthiest residents to pare back. (Districts where average use was higher were ordered to cut more.)

但该市的用水大户无一被罚款。因为不那么富裕的洛杉矶居民用水节约，该市轻轻松松就能完成用水量减少16%的命令，不用强迫极富裕的居民减少用水。（平均用水量较高的地区，削减幅度也更大。）

Though no names or addresses of Los Angeles water hogs have been released, it is easy to find homes where they might live: In Brentwood, one home listed for sale offers 12 bathrooms and a water slide that goes from inside the house to one of two pools. Another home under construction in Bel Air has been issued permits for five pools.

虽然相关机构没有公布洛杉矶用水大户的姓名和住址，但很容易就能找到他们可能居住的住所：在布伦特伍德(Brentwood)，一个挂牌出售的房屋拥有12个卫生间；有一条水滑道从屋里通往一座泳池，共有两座泳池。贝莱尔地区的一所在建房屋，获得了建造五座泳池的许可。

Maureen Levinson, a Bel Air resident, winced as she pointed out homes being built in her neighborhood with water features she likened to “moats.” “Someone has to say, ‘You can’t have five pools — you can have one pool,’” she said.

该地区居民莫琳·莱文森(Maureen Levinson)指着她所在社区的一些在建房屋摇头叹气，她形容那些房屋附带的水景仿佛是“护城壕”。她说，“需要有人指出，‘你不能建五座泳池，只能有一个’。”

Local newspapers have pressed the city to identify its top water users, as one San Francisco Bay Area district has done. One result: Famous residents have been shamed into using less water.

当地报纸要求该市公布用水大户的身份，就像旧金山湾区一样。一个结果是：一些知名的居民因为感到羞愧而减少了用水量。

Billy Beane, a minority owner and former general manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team, came third on the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s initial list of top water hogs in October, averaging 5,996 gallons a day, or nearly 25 times the district average. The top spot went to George Kirkland, a retired Chevron executive, at 12,578 gallons a day.

在东湾水务局(East Bay Municipal Utility District)列出的10月份用水大户名单中，奥克兰运动家(Oakland A’s)棒球队少数股东、前总经理比利·比恩(Billy Beane)位列第三，平均每天使用5996加仑水，几乎相当于该地区平均用水量的25倍。用水最多的是雪佛龙(Chevron)公司已经退休的高管乔治·柯克兰(George Kirkland)，其用水量达到每天12578加仑。

Both men blamed leaky pipes, and cut back enough to stay off the subsequent list of top water users.

这两人都埋怨管道漏水，为了避免登上以后的用水大户名单而大幅减少用水量。

Marty Adams, a senior assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said enforcing regulations in wealthy areas was more difficult than in poorer ones. “For a lot of people, accountants or landscapers pay the water bill, and they don’t even see it,” Mr. Adams added.

洛杉矶供水供电局(Los Angeles Department of Water and Power)总经理高级助理马蒂·亚当斯(Marty Adams)表示，在富裕区域执行规定，比在贫穷区域更难。亚当斯还表示，“对于很多人来说，水费是会计或庭院设计师付的，他们甚至没见过水费单。”

Los Angeles officials hope to start imposing fines so steep that even the wealthy who populate Bel Air will notice. Elsewhere, though, fines have already piled up on middle-class Californians.

洛杉矶的官员希望开始征收高额罚款，以便引起聚居于贝莱尔的富人们的注意。但在其他地方，加州的中产阶级已经收到大量罚款单。

The Central Valley city of Clovis, faced with an order to cut back 36 percent, has meted out more than 23,000 fines since the mandatory water reductions began in June. In Santa Cruz, where water supplies have run dangerously low, the city has assessed more than $1.6 million in penalties for using too much water.

位于中央谷地的克洛维斯市，接到了将用水量减少36%的命令，自从6月开始执行减少用水量的命令以来，该市已经开出了逾2.3万张罚单。圣克鲁兹的水供应量已经低到非常危险的水平，该市已经以用水过多为由，征收了逾160万美元的罚款。

But perhaps nowhere have the fines been felt as sharply — or raised as much ire — as in Apple Valley, where the median household income is below $50,000 a year, a stark contrast to Bel Air.

但苹果谷或许是罚款最多——或引发最多愤怒——的地区，该市家庭收入中位数为每年不到5万美元，这与贝莱尔形成鲜明对比。

“They have all this disposable income, and they’re not conserving at all,” said Barb Stanton, the mayor pro tem of Apple Valley. “We’re cutting back, and yet we’re being penalized. We have seniors on fixed incomes appealing to us — they don’t know how they’re going to pay their water bills.”

“他们有可观的可支配收入，却根本不节约用水，”苹果谷临时市长巴尔布·斯坦顿(Barb Stanton)说。“我们在减少用水，但我们却遭到了处罚。那些年收入固定的老年人过来向我们求助，他们不知道该怎么才能缴得起水费。”

Ms. Stanton was among those paying a drought surcharge, despite replacing her lawn with rocks. “How much more can I do?” she asked. “I let my trees die.”

尽管斯坦顿已经将草地改成石子地，她仍在缴纳干旱附加罚款。“我还能做什么？”她问道。“我已经让树枯死了。”

Tony Penna, the general manager of Apple Valley Ranchos, said customers should be able to live comfortably within their allotments if they used water efficiently. The typical customer, he said, pays less than $70 a month for water.

苹果谷兰乔斯的总经理托尼·宾纳(Tony Penna)表示，如果用户们能够有效用水，他们可以在不超过配额的情况下舒适地生活。他表示，普通用户每月的水费不超过70美元。

“The idea it can’t be done, we’re not buying that,” Mr. Penna said. “When you see someone who’s got a bill of $200 or $400, many times it’s because their dedication to conservation isn’t as good.”

“有人觉得这不可能做到，我们不相信，”宾纳说。“要是看到某人的水费达到200美元或400美元，那往往是因为他们还是不够节约。”