Dive Brief:

• Dublin, CA, a suburb of San Francisco, is planning what city officials have called the “biggest and best” water park in the East Bay despite severe water restrictions that took effect last week in drought-plagued California.

• Construction on the $36 million project, which will include six water slides, three pools, a water playground and a concert venue, is scheduled to wrap up in 2017. The city “has been flooded” with requests by residents to scale back or scrap the project. Some have accused local officials of forging ahead with the ill-timed project in an effort to link their names to a local landmark.

• Gov. Jerry Brown has ordered cities and towns to pare their use of water by 25%. Dublin officials already had asked residents to cut their water use by 20%.

Dive Insight:

City officials have said the 480,000 gallons needed to fill the park’s pools is not substantial when compared with the 9.4 million gallons that area businesses and residents use each day. Plus, they said delaying construction would inevitably raise the cost of building it later. In addition, they said they are unable to renege on already-signed construction contracts.