former marin water district board member pamela lloyd.numbers of people per household, this is how much water you have in a given period of time. you choose how you use it. over a certain period of time, you cannot go beyond that use, or you'll be penalized. this is where economics did come in. you'd be penalized very severely for it. cooking and drinking water were important and our vegetable garden. you didn't wash the car. you didn't hose down the patio or the deck, all these real wasteful uses. some put signs up directing people toward conservation methods. it was in to wear dirty clothes or drive a dirty car. when you were waiting for the hot water, you'd collect the cold water for something else. rising to the challenge, marin residents reduced their water consumption by 66%. there's an old saying, "you never miss the water till the wells run dry." marin county saw more evidence of how valuable water was. look at what people would pay for something recently taken for granted. 1,000 gallons of water today for an individual through th