Fresno the "yellow mellow capital of California" would stink to high heaven.
Unfresh urine stinks.

I don't advocate wasteful water gallonage for household and/or personal hygiene, but in my personal opinion, Smiser's solution is filthy.

At least in the outhouse of
yore, natural earth bacteria broke down the human waste. The steril porcelain toilet bowl will do no such thing.

And if I had to write more on the subject I would vomit. What color would that be in Smiser's charming little poem?

I've followed the poem since January 2007. I did the same during the drought of the late 1980s. I have to admit that my passion for water conservation waned when the voters overturned water meters in the city of Fresno.

At the same time, I quit driving my car to the gym (it's only 1/2 mile from my house. I didn't make much sense to drive to a place where I walked on a treadmill or rode a stationalry bike.

Two nights ago I installed a 1.5 gallons per minute shower head. The state requirement is 2.2 gpm. This new showerhead is awesome, it doesn't rely on restrictors or tiny little holes that clog.

These are the easy changes.

as I write this, some kids down the street are playing "slipnslide" the water is running nonstop, for blocks and blocks,... and who will explain the crisis to these kids,...not me, that's for sure, but it seems like a failure of parenting and schooling, that, yet another generation of Fresnan's kids are oblivious to the preciousness of our water.

Keeping a toilet closed between uses contains the odor and is not "filthy".We're not talking about an outhouse here. Some of these days we will find out what it means to be without water and wish we had used all conservation methods possible including the "yellow mello" procedure.

I'm not one to let the urine sit there until I return. Even if the lid is down, the old urine would stink in time. I recall several years ago going by the students restroom in this provincial capital in Peru and the odor was overwhelming. Also, I have a nearby neighbor who has automatic sprinklers here in Reedley, but his/her father waters the lawn and the bushes early in the morning with a HOSE. He just wets the ground thoroughly. We do have certain days here in Reedley to water.

..."if it makes you swoon, flush it soon"

"...if it makes you sick, flush it quick."

There are simpler, cleaner and saner ways than learning to live with urine standing in our hygiene vessels.

Have the brain and moral fortitude to stop growth.

There are just too many of us using water without replacing it in this semi
arrid region.
In 1957, the potable water in our pressure system was only 10 feet down. But by that time home development started big. And they kept coming and coming, mostly from Los Angeles which had used up its water. And agriculture started to disappear more and more, and still is.
Are we looking forward to less and less of locally grown food and more and more urine???????
One pismire (ant) has more survival instinct than all of us combined. But we have been ordained to have dominion over all of creation... Wake up and smell the coffee.....

Those kids on the slipnslide are having what we used to call fun, but there are options I suppose...drugs, street corners, your vehicle, your neighborhood, your life.
Better mud than blood.

Or they can just sit in front of TV's and computers all day. Maybe they can play a virtual slipnslide game on their Wii.

That was my point, Bart. the kids are doing the same things I was doing in the 50's,..I love the sound of childrens laughter and wasn't about to interfere with their fun, but still, I couldn't help noticing, that the cost of their entertainment was hundreds of gallons of fresh well water.

When they stop the growth we will have enough water. The growth has given us a water shortage and terrible air quality. When will they get their heads out of their butts and get the picture. I have spent much time trying to get my kid to flush the toilet and I am not going to tell her now that she shouldn't. We conserve in only doinf full loads of laundry and handwashing as well as shutting water off when we brush our teeth etc.

I think that parents who purchase slipnslides for their children, and their children's friends, are aware of how that product works.

I also believe that parents know that the product keeps children cool safely in a harsh suumer climate. I presume they also know that fewer children are found unconscious on slipnslides than in pools.

At any rate, surely less water is wasted on a slipnslide event than is used to facilitate a funerary car wash.