Amid California drought, man posts more than 100 videos, addresses of alleged 'water wasters'

LOS ANGELES -- A California man has posted more than 100 videos and addresses of alleged water-wasters online and says he goal is to promote change, not shame those he filmed.

According to the KTLA report, Tony Corcoran has been videotaping examples of water waste at homes, businesses, schools and public facilities in the Los Angeles area for roughly four years.

“If I see something that I find to be terribly egregious, such as a stream going down the middle of the road where there should not be a stream, I stop, and take a video of it,” he told KTLA-TV.

Corcoran then posts the videos to his YouTube page — “Western Water Luv” — along with the address where the alleged offense occurred. Some of the videos use the hashtag, #droughtshaming.

In one confrontation, a woman watering plants in the front yard of her home turned the hose on Corcoran after he criticized her lush lawn, telling him, “I didn’t ask you to do this.”

The goal of the videos, Corcoran explained, is to get people to change and “not to shame them.”

While Corcoran thinks what he does is for the good of California, some have criticized so-called “drought-shaming,” which has picked up steam in the midst of the state’s historic drought.

A new app, for example, allows users to report when they see water being water wasted. And others have taken to Twitter to report their neighbors, using the hashtag, #droughtshaming.

“All you are doing is promoting greater discord among the civilian population,” one Internet user posted about drought-shamers in general.