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Long Beach Water Dept: Imported water deliveries cut; rates increased 19.7%; Region’s wholesale water provider reduces supplies delivered to Long Beach/SoCal, as expected; City not impacted by delivery cut due to extraordinary conservation efforts

Posted by: Maven on April 16, 2009 at 6:17 am

From the Long Beach Water Department, this press release:

LONG BEACH, CA – Long Beach Water officials are calling th action of the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California to begin reducing imported water supply allocations to communities across the southland, an action they not only expected, but one they welcome. On Tuesday, the MWD Board of Directors voted to essentially cut water deliveries to southern California by 10 percent, due to three years of below average rainfall, supply constrictions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the real possibility that current and future regulatory restrictions in the Delta will prevent the state from adequately replenishing water supply reserves, even when wetter conditions return. The Long Beach Water Department foresees no impact on the city of Long Beach by these cuts in deliveries due to the mandatory prohibitions on certain outdoor uses of water implemented citywide nearly two years ago.

“Up to 19 million Southern Californians this summer will feel the impact of a new water reality that has been in the making for years, if not decades,” said MWD board Chairman Timothy Brick. “Today’s action represents the critical need for each of us to modify our water use behavior to be more efficient on a permanent basis to reflect our new water reality.” The Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners welcomes the action taken by the MWD; calling it essential to bolster an immediate and deliberate push in southern California for extraordinary conservation, particularly mandatory prohibitions on certain outdoor uses of water. “The writing has been on the wall for some time now,” states John Allen, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners. “We’ve expected it, we’ve encouraged them to do it, and we’re hopeful that it encourages other southern California communities to finally do what Long Beach citizens have done for the past 19 months.”

On September 13, 2007, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners issued a Declaration of Imminent Water Supply Shortage and activated the City’s Emergency Water Supply Shortage Plan. As a result, the Board of Water Commissioners issued mandatory prohibitions on certain outdoor uses of water. “The Board took the action it did, well over a year ago now, to specifically forestall and lessen the impact of an expected water supply shortage,” state Allen. The Board’s Declaration and implementation of permanent outdoor watering prohibitions in 2007 was specifically necessitated by the profound impact of permanent reductions to imported water deliveries into southern California; dramatic reductions in water storage levels in key reservoirs in northern California, along with climate realities.

MWD’s water supply allocation from the State Water Project, which brings water from the Bay Delta to southern California, has been reduced by 80 percent for 2009. Since 2006, MWD has drawn down nearly 60 percent of its supply reserves that are typically set aside for drought cycles and other emergencies. Because of severe, on-going environmental problems in the Bay Delta, the entire state faces problems of replenishing its reserves, even in normal to wet weather years, today and in the future. “We must be very careful on how we manage our remaining supplies,” according to Jeff Kightlinger, General Manager of the MWD.

In a separate, but equally important action, the MWD Board approved a 19.7 percent increase in rates charged to member agencies, like Long Beach, for use of imported water. The new rate increase is scheduled to take effect in September, which is four months earlier than normal. Approximately half of Long Beach’s water supply is purchased from the MWD, ranking as the Long Beach Water Department’s single largest fixed cost, budget expenditure each year.

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

Ryan J. Alsop
Director of Government & Public Affairs
Long Beach Water

April 16, 2009 · Filed Under Southern California, Water Agency News

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