Yep, as predicted, some concerned citizens have lined up to sign a petition to prevent the Utah-based startup Slide the City from bringing its 1,000-foot Slip-n-Slide to multiple California cities this summer in the midst of our five-year drought. As CBS 5 reports, a guy named Paul Duffy launched this petition with the modest goal of getting just 1,000 signatures. He's already halfway there.

An all-day Slip-n-Slide event, like this corporate-sponsored one that happened on Potrero Hill last summer, will certainly use countless gallons of water. And given that we will likely be facing even stricter water usage rules this summer unless we get some torrential downpours in the next two months, such events are probably in poor taste, if not outright illegal. And Slide the City was already thwarted last September from hosting an event in Downtown LA, as LAist reported.

Slide the City was planning to host 15 Slip-n-Slide events around California this year, including in SF, Oakland, San Rafael, Vallejo, San Jose, Hollywood, and San Diego. There is nothing on their website indicating that they plan to use recycled water, or that they have any method for recirculating the water they use on the slide. Assuming that the slide requires a very modest 7 gallons per minute (about the volume that comes out of an old-fashioned shower head), and each event last 8 hours, Slide the City would be wasting approximately 50,000 gallons of California's water if all these events happened. [Update: A spokesman for Slide the City tells SF Weekly that the SF slide would require about 15,000 gallons of water, that it is a closed system, and that the water would be recycled afterwards at the city's discretion.]

Sorry kids: If dad's not allowed even to wash his car, you don't get to turn the hydrant on all day just for fun.

Previously: Drought Be Damned, Giant Slip-N-Slide Coming To SF And Oakland Streets This Summer