Water Supplies Will Be Far Below Normal This Year

Today, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners have renewed their call for immediate, extraordinary conservation measures after the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced that despite a normal snow pack, the water supply outlook for southern California remains poor.
The 2008 winter snow survey conducted today by the DWR is indicating that the water content of the Sierra snow pack is near normal, but State Water Project deliveries continue to remain at near record lows due to last year’s federal court ruling that significantly restricts Delta pumping from December through June, to protect an endangered fish. "The snow pack is back to normal, but a broken Delta means water deliveries to millions of Californians will be far below normal this year," said DWR Director Lester Snow.
"Once again, we call on the Metropolitan Water District and the southern California water supply community to join Long Beach and take a more aggressive, long-term, public stance on the need to immediately conserve water," stated Bill Townsend, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners. "Implementation of strict prohibitions on certain outdoor water uses, bolstered with aggressive public communications, is the future for southern California. We're asking our colleagues to embrace this future, today. We, collectively, 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. The only way a successful effort is going to be sustained, is if we have all of Southern California on board."
Currently, the State Water Project is projected to deliver only 35 percent of requested amounts this year to cities, farmers and businesses in the Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California. Last year, State Water Project deliveries were around 60 percent. "We have twice the snow pack and only half the water supply as we did at this time last year, stated Kevin L. Wattier, General Manager of the Long Beach Water Department. "This demonstrates the real implications of last year’s federal Delta Smelt ruling."
Earlier this month, during a joint Senate Committee hearing held in Sacramento, Roger Patterson, Assistant General Manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), read a prepared statement into the record, stating that "despite a healthy snow pack and a series of wet storms, deliveries from the State Water Project in 2008 are dramatically curtailed. Metropolitan is rapidly depleting its existing water supply reserves with no relief in sight." The MWD wholesales imported water supplies to communities throughout southern California. Fifty percent of Long Beach’s water supply is purchased from the MWD.
Since June of last year, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners has implemented extraordinary conservation measures, including enforcement of new citywide restrictions on certain outdoor uses of water. These efforts have achieved an additional 8 percent reduction in water use citywide through February of this year.
The Long Beach Water Department is an urban, southern California retail water supply agency and the standard in water conservation and environmental stewardship.