No Fooling: Reserves 30% Below Last Year

Northern California water supply reservoirs have been rapidly depleted this year to meet California’s demand for water, due to the effects of record drought. In fact, the volume of water stored in these critical supply reservoirs is, collectively, 2.6 million-acre-feet (30 percent) less today then at this time last year. Despite this year’s average snow pack in the Sierra Mountains, the California Department of Water Resources has recently announced that water deliveries to the Bay Area, the Central Valley and to southern California "will be far below normal this year," due to a recent Federal court ruling which has significantly restricted pumping in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta.
"What this means is that we’ve essentially moved into a world where even in NORMAL years, we don’t have enough water," said Kevin L. Wattier, General Manager of the Long Beach Water Department. "Southern California is currently positioning itself for catosptrophic failure in the event of a protracted drought."
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 his agency "is rapidly depleting its existing water supply reserves with no relief in sight." The MWD wholesales imported water supplies to communities throughout southern California, who are dependent on these imported supplies. Fifty percent of Long Beach’s water supply is purchased from the MWD.
Just last week, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioner renewed their call for immediate, extraordinary conservation. "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, the Commission’s President. "The only way a successful effort is going to be sustained, is if we have all of Southern California on board."
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.

Meet Dog, the Water Cop...like a freight train

The Long Beach Water Department, joined by marketing partners LBPost.com; The Surfrider Foundation; JustinRudd.com and Professor Alan Jacobs of California State University Long Beach’s Film & Electronic Arts Department, is inviting the world to submit 30-second videos on the need to Stop Wasting Water. One video will be selected by the Long Beach Water Department, and its marketing partners, as the Best Overall Video and used as one of the Department's key public service announcements to run locally, on 14 different cable television networks this summer.
In September of last year, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners made an official Declaration of Imminent Water Supply Shortage triggering new, citywide prohibitions on certain uses of water, particularly outdoor water use. Approximately sixty percent of all the water used in Los Angeles County is used outdoors, primarily on non-native landscapes. The Board’s September 2007 Declaration was a direct result of record drought, rapid depletion of in-State water supply reserves, and a Federal court ruling to mitigate environmental impacts in California’s Bay Delta, which is a key imported water supply source for southern California.
To be considered, videos should be original, no longer than 30-seconds and use the phrase, "Stop Wasting Water," at least once. All videos will be judged on their potential to affect a permanent lifestyle change in the way people think about and use their water, so that inefficient and wasteful uses are no longer tolerated. The Best Overall Video will be announced on Friday, May 2, 2008.
To have your video considered, upload it HERE, or at www.youtube.com/group/waterwaster.