Long Beach water consumption hitting record lows; November '08 is new record low

Today, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners have announced that Long Beach water demand for November 2008 has set a new record 10-year low. Long Beach water use this November was 12.1 percent below the historical 10-year average ('98-'07) water use. November '08 water use was 7.9 percent below November '07. November's new record low marks the 11th record setting month for low water use since September 2007. Long Beach water consumption over the last 12 months is tracking at 10.1 percent below the historical 10-year average ('98-'07).
Last month, the Board announced
that the City had a set a new record 10-year low for water consumption for Fiscal Year 2008. That announcement meant that the City had consumed less water in Fiscal Year '08, than in any other year over the past decade. In fact, the City consumed less water in Fiscal Year '08 than it did during the height of the 1987-1992 drought, with mandatory rationing and a population 15 percent smaller than today. The Long Beach Water Department is in its second year of extraordinary, mandatory water conservation due to an imminent water supply shortage in southern California.
"Waste not, want not," says John Allen
, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners. "Again, every gallon we don't use is a gallon we leave in storage. This is an idea that should have been embraced months ago by every community in southern California. We have been using our storage to water our landscapes, and that storage is at historic low levels as we head into what may very well be another dry year." The collective storage level of Lake Shasta, Lake Oroville and San Luis Reservoir, the feeders to the State Water Project, are the lowest they've been since 1977. This is a primary reason for the State Department of Water Resources' recent announcement that water deliveries from northern California to the Central Valley, and on to southern California, may be 85 percent below what is being requested for these regions next year.