Does Forgoing Your Glass of Restaurant Water Actually Help the Drought?

Probably not—but it might make you think twice about squandering precious H20.

<a href="http://www.istockphoto.com/photo/waiter-serving-water-17223741?st=862ffdc">leezsnow</a>/iStock

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If you’ve dined out in California lately, you may have noticed something missing: your complimentary glass of water.

That’s no accident. Last winter, as the state’s epic drought wore on, the Water Resources Control Board was desperate to reduce water use—so it called on the public to offer up ideas. Someone volunteered what seemed like obvious solution: Restaurants could quit giving out water with meals unless diners asked for it.

Water wasted at California’s restaurants amounts to about 0.2 percent of the water used to grow California’s almonds.

Board scientist Max Gomberg recalls, “All of us in the water management part of state government looked at it and thought, ‘Of course. This is such a basic thing.'”

So in April 2015, the Board rolled out the new rule along with a series of regulations intended to help Californians obey Governor Brown’s executive order to cut water use by 25 percent. Before long, placards began appearing in bars and restaurants across the state, and help-yourself pitchers were put away. Violators can face fines of up to $500.

It’s a noble idea—giving up your dinnertime glass of water for the sake of California’s parched land. But I’ve been wondering: In a state where 80 percent of water goes to agriculture, how much water is the restaurant measure actually saving?

Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute—an independent research institute that tackles drought issues around the world—wondered the same thing. So he did the math.

Based on a survey that found the average American eats out close to five times a week, he calculated that 315 million Americans ate roughly 260 meals at restaurants each year. Guessing that about six ounces of water in each person’s glass would go unused, he estimated a total of 3.8 billion gallons of water per year. Add another 16 billion gallons to wash the glasses and the total comes to 20 billion gallons nationally—enough to fill 31,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

There are about 39 million people in California, so by the same logic, that’s about 2.5 billion gallons state-wide, or around 3,900 pools. That may sound like a lot, but to put it in perspective, it’s only about 0.2 percent of the water used to grow California’s almonds.

Of course, this math is just a back-of-the-napkin calculation—the real data isn’t available. Still, Gomberg says, the strategy was intended more for educational purposes than for anything else.

“It may not save us a lot of water but what it does is raise awareness,” he says. “Everyone goes out to eat. And not only that—it helps visitors to the state. People who come from out of state, people who come internationally, who may not be following the news and may not know about the drought.”

Gleick agrees. “We aren’t going to solve the drought problem by stopping restaurants from serving water,” he says. But “We are beginning slowly to put in place the policies that will really cut urban water use.”

The state is preparing to release its monthly conservation figures, which will reveal Californian’s progress on meeting the Governor’s 25 percent reduction order. Gomberg hints that there may be new enforcement mechanisms to reign in districts that are over the mark.

Still, Gleick says, even little measures can sometimes have an impact. “I was at a restaurant on Sunday having brunch, and I noticed that the waiter clearing the glasses of water that hadn’t been finished, and taking them outside and pouring them on a tree,” he says. “So at least some people are getting the message.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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