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Long Beach hits record low water use in May; May ‘08 is 8% below 10-year-average; City achieving lowest annual use on record over last 10-Years

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 5, 2008 at 6:05 am

The Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners has announced that Long Beach has hit a new 10-year record low for water consumption in May, with use dropping to 8 percent below the 10-year average. Long Beach is 6 percent below the 10-year average for the entire year, and achieving the lowest annual use on record over the last 10 years.

The City of Long Beach has been operating under Declaration of an Imminent Water Supply Shortage since September of 2007. This Water Commission action, coupled with an earlier June 2007 Declaration of Immediate and Extraordinary Conservation, which was implemented nearly one year ago today, was a direct result of:

Knowledge of a permanent, massive loss of water supply from the Owens Valley into southern California

Knowledge of a permanent, massive loss of water supply from the Colorado River into southern California

Knowledge of record low water storage along the Colorado River due to prolonged drought throughout the Colorado River Watershed

Knowledge of the ongoing, rapid depletion of in-state water supply reserves to meet basic water needs

Knowledge of long-term, potential global climate change impacts on future southern California water supply reliability

Knowledge that the reliability of the Bay Delta, the only remaining southern California imported water source, other than the Colorado River and the Owens Valley, is in serious decline.

Knowledge of a federal court decision to greatly reduce imported water exports to southern California in order to protect an endangered species of fish in the California Bay Delta.

Knowledge of the potential for further court action on several additional species of fish that live in the Delta, that could further reduce Delta pumping.

Knowledge of record low rainfall in winter of 2006/2007.

Knowledge that demands for imported water have been increasing since the early 1990’s (record high demand for imported water in Summer of 2007)

Knowledge that even with normal weather conditions, demand for imported water continues to increase, while these imported water sources are being permanently reduced.

Knowledge that mandatory prohibitions on certain outdoor water uses and other extraordinary conservation measures could go a long way toward mitigating the impacts of all of the above, both in the short and long term, at very little cost and effort on the part of our customers.

13. Knowledge that there was a significant probability that the water supply situation would get worse and that taking prudent action was the responsible thing to do.

“What this means is that we’ve essentially moved into a world where even in NORMAL years, we don’t have enough water,” according to Kevin L. Wattier, General Manager of the Long Beach Water Department. “Without a more aggressive effort to implement extraordinary conservation, among other important longer term, permanent solutions, southern California is currently positioning itself for catastrophic failure in the event of a protracted drought.”

The Long Beach Water Commission’s Declaration in September triggered an aggressive public education campaign and imposed mandatory prohibitions on certain outdoor uses of water, to include:

Irrigation of landscapes, now limited to Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays only.

Irrigating landscapes between the hours of 9am and 4pm, for longer than 10 minutes per station, is prohibited

Over watering landscapes causing excessive run-off is prohibited

Washing driveways, walkways, patios, store fronts, parking lots and other paved surfaces is prohibited, unless you’re using a pressurized water conserving cleaning device.

“We need to engineer a permanent lifestyle change in the way we all see and use our water, so that inefficient and wasteful uses are no longer tolerated by anyone,” stated Bill Townsend, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners. “The only way a successful effort is going to be sustained, is if we have all of Southern California on board. We are happy to see Los Angeles moving forward with their plan.”

The Long Beach Water Department is an urban, southern California retail water supply agency and the standard in water conservation and environmental stewardship.