Aug 26, 2008

No, really. They do. At least in California.

California legislators have passed AB 2270, a bill that basically allows the government to confiscate your water softener if a non-elected board decides that local salinity is too high or harmful to the environment.

You can read the amended text here.

The juicy part is here:

SEC. 4. Section 13148 is added to the
Water Code , to read:
13148. Notwithstanding Article 1 (commencing with Section 116775) of Chapter 5 of Part 12 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code, if the state board or a regional board makes a finding at a public hearing that the control of residential salinity input will contribute to achievement of water quality objectives, any local agency that maintains a community sewer system in an area affected by the finding may by ordinance take action to control residential salinity inputs, including those from water softeners, to protect the quality of the waters of the state.

So basically, after we have spent $2500 to make our water more normal for everyday use (we have 26 grains of hardness!), they can come in and simply remove my unit, without any compensation at all for my cost.  We bought the unit for medical reasons (my daughter has very dry skin), and yet there is no allowance even for that.

I swear our politicians are dead set on making the United States a modern Gulag.

While we did buy the unit to help my daughter’s dry skin, its a simple fact that hard water also costs a homeowner money by greatly damaging pipes and plumbing, increasing the cost to operate appliances and by making clothes wear out faster.

Hard water is also BAD for the environment, as it forces the use of more soap and detergent for all household and commercial cleaning applications.  That means that MORE, not less chemicals are introduced back into the environment when the entire goal of the proposed bill is to reduce environmental impact and to increase water serviceability through recycling.  Sacramento is sometimes nothing more than an expensive idiot farm.

Here’s an idea - why don’t we have a referendum to vote that next year, politicians can only REMOVE laws from the books - they can’t write new ones for a whole year.  Something tells me the benefit to society would be tremendous.

Please join me in telling the Governator to VETO this assinie bill.  Its easy to do - just go to: http://savemysoftener.com/ and follow the directions.

Water Softener Ban, AB 2270, Save My Softener