Well, kudos to Gov. Brown for taking some drastic action on CA's water issues.

(photo credit: LA Times)

Californians do not know for sure what the latest drought cycle is, but we do know that it is time to take action to the next level.  Cities throughout the state have not been idle. There are amazing statistics on water usage reductions even though the population has increased steadily.

Here are some of the key actions taken by Sacramento:

Other elements of Brown's order would:

--Require golf courses, cemeteries and other large landscaped spaces to reduce water consumption.

--Replace 50 million square feet of lawn statewide with drought-tolerant landscaping as part of a partnership with local governments.

--Create a statewide rebate program to replace old appliances with more water- and energy-efficient ones.

--Require new homes to have water-efficient drip irrigation if developers want to use potable water for landscaping.

--Ban the watering of ornamental grass on public street medians.

--Call on water agencies to implement new pricing models that discourage excessive water use.

--Require agricultural to report more water usage information to the state so that regulators can better find waste and improper activities.

-Create a mechanism to enforce requirements that water districts report usage numbers to the state.