telegraph | In a desperate bid to save their manicured lawns and towering topiary, some of
Montecito's multi-millionaires have since been trying to out-spend nature by
buying water in from outside.
Each morning at the crack of dawn, trucks laden with precious H₂O trundle down
lanes towards parched estates.
The buyers are paying up to $80 (£49) a unit – a unit is 748 gallons – for
water that normally costs a maximum of $6.86 (£4.23) a unit from the water
district.
The trucks are now a common sight in Montecito, passing by Sotheby's
International Realty and an haute couture clothes store. But the origin of
the water is something of a mystery.
"I see the trucks every day. They're like big gas trucks with a water
sign on," said Tori Delgado, who works in the Montecito wine and cheese
shop. "But nobody knows where they're getting it from."
The water is likely being sold by private individuals elsewhere in California
who have wells on their properties.
But wherever it comes from the buyers appear to be staving off the inevitable
only temporarily, and many millionaires are turning to conservation instead.
Miss Winfrey is prominent among them.
"Two months ago she just said, 'Turn off the water', and now there's not
a green blade of grass on that lawn," a resident who has seen her
parched garden told the Telegraph.
At Miss Winfrey's second and larger Montecito estate – an $85 million affair
called Promised Land – the grass is still green but the water bill has also
fallen dramatically.
The Montecito Water District has so far banned the watering of gardens in the
middle of the day, filling swimming pools at any time, and the building of
new homes.
Meanwhile scores of angry residents have lodged appeals for more water. One
asked for a supply to save 300 specimen trees – but was told the trees would
have to die.
Tom Mosby, general manager of Montecito Water District, said: "People
come to us and say 'We want to build a swimming pool' and we say 'No'. If it
doesn't rain next year the state's going to go dry. We are talking about a
disaster movie in the making."
