This is just one post in the Conservation Category

L.A. fiddles around while Long Beach breaks records for water conservation

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 9, 2008 at 7:46 am

From Ron Kaye LA Blog:

Did you hear the one about the top L.A. water official who wants you to drink toilet water and personally uses twice as much as the average guy?

Not funny? How’s this: The head of the Long Beach water agency uses one-sixth as much water for his family of five as David Nahai, the head of L.A.’s DWP, does for his family of five.

I’m dying out here trying to get a laugh.

So not only does Long Beach water chief Kevin Wattier conserve himself but he’s got the whole town doing it. Water consumption in Long Beach in June was at a 10-year-low for that month. It was 5.7 percent lower than any in June in a decade, 10.5 percent below the 10-year average and for that last 12 months Long Beach is using 7 percent less water than the average of the last 10 years.

Now that’s funny, you got to admit. Especially when you know L.A.’s water use is just about at the average of recent years — 2.4 percent lower than last year but 20.5 percent higher than two years ago.

So next time you hear the mayor, your City Council member or David Nahai talk about how “green” they are, you can laugh in their face certain in the knowledge that they are hypocrites and deceivers.

It’s Long Beach that’s green and every water official knows why. Kevin Wattier didn’t talk about conserving water, he did something about it — last September — when he figured out that California is facing a water crisis. Demand exceeds supply and it’s not a temporary problem. “We’re really in trouble,” Wattier told me. “We need to make permanent lifestyle changes. Everybody in Southern California needs to permanently reduce their water use. We’re at the tipping point and we need to face reality.”

Read the rest of Ron Kaye’s article by clicking here.

July 9, 2008 · Filed Under Conservation, LA DWP, Long Beach Water Department