Ecorazzi

With Florida facing yet another dismal summer to go along with a nearly two-year drought, people are starting to point fingers and raise hell over those not changing their water-wasting ways. On Jupiter Island, Fla., if you’re Celine Dion — and you’re building a $20 million 9,800-square-foot estate — you better believe even more attention will be paid to your activities.

Hence the Palm Beach Post’s recent investigation into Celine’s water consumption — which found that the star’s new home consumed roughly 6.5 million gallons of water last year, almost 100 times more than the average resident. Icing on the cake? She doesn’t even live there yet. It’s still under construction! From the article,

“‘People are pretty much permitted to use as much water as they want. [The district] has allowed people to over-water,’ said the Sierra Club’s Drew Martin. ‘If someone like Celine Dion planted natural plants and used ‘zeroscaping,’ then she probably wouldn’t need to use so much water. … The state’s basically going to run out of water because we do not restrict what people used in the first place.’”

So, in reality, once can’t place all the blame at Celine’s feet — especially when more than 50% of Florida’s water goes towards landscaping. Last summer, the NY Times wrote an article on how residents were slow to see the need to save water — especially when the lush grass needs so much to look good in their neighborhoods.

And here’s another shocker: Celine’s water consumption was only “slightly” above the island’s average! She’s obviously being singled out, but let’s hope others get the message as well. Tiger Wood is building a home just a but down from her. Let’s hope he brings rain barrels.

ABC News via Green Daily

(If you’d like to see a high-res snapshot of Celine’s home, courtesy of Google Maps, jump here.)