California did it. This month, the Legislature passed a package of bills that includes a statewide urban water conservation goal of 20% by 2020. We have confronted the kind of conservation that will be needed to secure the water supply of Los Angeles, and the state, in the face of population growth and climate change.

Or have we?

It all depends on where you put the goal posts.

If the goal is 20% conservation from the date of the legislation -- Nov. 10 -- then that would indeed be meaningful. The mandate would capture and build on the rising momentum across Southern California to finally use water as if we lived in a dry place, and to finally prepare for life in what forecasters say will inevitably be a drier one.

Only a cynic would scoff at the steady savings recorded this summer and autumn by cities across the Southland, which responded to drought conditions with emergency cutbacks. Beverly Hills is down 13% compared with the same period last year. Huntington Beach achieved a 10% savings, and in markedly progressive Long Beach, consumption has been more than 17% below the historic average. In the foothills, Glendale achieved a little more than 18% savings this summer, and in the baking-hot Inland Empire, savings ranged from 5% to 15% over the same period. Even at the edge of the Mojave Desert, where conservation is orders of magnitude more difficult, Lancaster exceeded a 10% goal.