# 70s water shortage (?)... local? Nat'l? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-water-shortage-local-natl/786157 "2017-05-08T20:41:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![2Bits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e95f7d/32.png) [@2Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Bits)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-water-shortage-local-natl/786157/1 "2017-05-08T20:41:55Z")
I seem to recall that for some reason for a period in the 1970s restaurants got stingy with water and stopped automatically giving it to customers (except upon request). Anybody else recollect this? At the time I was a teenager in the state of Michigan, U.S.A. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-water-shortage-local-natl/786157/2 "2017-05-08T20:50:38Z")
I remember it as well. The reason wasn’t to save the 8 ounces of water in the glass, it was to save the gallon of water it took to wash it when the customer was done with it. Not in Michigan though, I remember it from New York. ---
**Author:** ![2Bits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e95f7d/32.png) [@2Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Bits)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-water-shortage-local-natl/786157/3 "2017-05-08T20:53:52Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > I remember it as well. The reason wasn’t to save the 8 ounces of water in the glass, it was to save the gallon of water it took to wash it when the customer was done with it. Not in Michigan though, I remember it from New York. What inspired that effort? Why/ when did it end? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-water-shortage-local-natl/786157/4 "2017-05-08T20:58:54Z")
Wikipedia has this to say about droughts in the 1970s: [QUOTE=wikipedia] Short term droughts hit particular spots of the United States during 1976 and 1977. California’s statewide snowpack reached an all-time low in 1977. Water resources and agriculture (especially livestock) suffered; negatively impacting the nation’s economy. This drought reversed itself completely the following year. [/QUOTE] From here: Droughts in the United States > **[Droughts in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droughts_in_the_United_States)** > > The United States' contiguous western and especially southwestern region has experienced widespread drought since about year 2000. Below normal precipitation leads to drought, and is caused by an above average persistence of high pressure over the affected area. Changes in the track of extratropical cyclones, which can occur during climate cycles such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, as well as the North Atlantic Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and Atlantic multidec Droug... ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-water-shortage-local-natl/786157/5 "2017-05-08T21:06:45Z")
IIRC it started in SoCal where I lived at the time. The California legislature passed a law requiring restuarants to not serve water unless asked. Restaurants quickly discovered they were washing a lot fewer glasses and saving money on dishwashing effort. And their waitstaff had a few less tasks so one worker could handle a couple more tables. So what started out as about saving the public’s water supplies quickly turned into saving restaurant owners’ money. It quickly spread across the country on that basis and has been with us ever since. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-water-shortage-local-natl/786157/6 "2017-05-08T22:12:31Z")
> [@2Bits](#): > > What inspired that effort? Why/ when did it end? Amazingly enough, until just recently New York City had a law on the books forbidding restaurants to automatically give patrons water. They had to wait for the customers to ask. From the _New York Times_: Yet a subdivision of Section 20-08 of Chapter 20 of Title 15 of the Rules of the City of New York Governing and Restricting the Use and Supply of Water unequivocally prohibits serving water in a restaurant unless a patron requests it. It was rarely enforced, except during a drought emergency. In 2002 they issued 14 warnings against restaurants. Anyway, in the last days of the Bloomberg administration the rule was eliminated. Water saving showers and toilets, timers on irrigation water and other water conservation measures has dropped New York City’s water usage from 1.5 billion gallons a day in the mid-seventies by a third, to 1 billion gallons a day, making it both unnecessary and unenforced. ---
**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-water-shortage-local-natl/786157/7 "2017-05-09T00:25:28Z")
Here in Austin, this restriction would come into place every summer or slightly less so when we put water rationing in place due to drought. As of about 10 years ago, we are in permanent “conservation” stage, so this rule is in effect indefinitely. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-water-shortage-local-natl/786157/8 "2017-05-09T00:56:36Z")
Alabama - don’t know the reason, but this started happening (us not getting water automatically at most restaurants), sometime between 1988 and 1998, I’d guess. I’m completely supportive of it (it was a huge waste of water, energy, and time, as referenced above). I’d assumed that was the reason it was done. Now only people who actually want water get it. Win-win. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-water-shortage-local-natl/786157/9 "2017-05-09T03:51:30Z")
In the 1970s in Michigan, it was more likely an energy conservation measure than being about the water itself. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-water-shortage-local-natl/786157/10 "2017-05-09T03:51:33Z")
I remember this from visiting NY with my family for the 1964 World’s Fair. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/70s-water-shortage-local-natl/786157/11 "2017-05-09T19:31:57Z")
In 1977 we went on a family (6 of us) trip from Minnesota to California. I was almost 16. When we arrived in Burbank, CA we stayed with my dad’s aunt and uncle. There was a water shortage there. The aunt said we couldn’t take a shower every day - what every 16 year old girl would love to hear! They were saving leftover brewed coffee in a jar in the fridge for the next day. (and they were quite well-off!) My mom, sisters and I were using Psssst! (dry shampoo) in our hair. UGH. The best part of it was that the neighbor across the street would go out every morning and rinse his driveway off with the hose!!