Recent Storms Do Very Little for Water Supply Outlook

Recent Storms Do Little for Water Supply OutlookDespite wet weather, snowpack remains well below normal; continued conservation critical

Long Beach Water officials are today reminding customers to continue conserving all the water they can by taking advantage of the recent wet weather and shutting off irrigation systems until the middle of next week. While recent storms have provided local rain and snow, snowpack in the northern Sierra Nevada is currently 90 percent below normal for the year. Northern Sierra snowpack is a primary imported water source for Central Valley and southern California farms and cities. Long Beach imports half its water supply.

"We need to take advantage of the rain we've received over the last couple of days and use it wisely," according to Matt Lyons, Director of Conservation and Planning for the Long Beach Water Department. "This rain is enough to allow all of us to shut our irrigation systems off for several days." Between 50 and 70 percent of all the water used in Long Beach is used outside the home, primarily on lush, non-native landscapes. "Not having to irrigate for 4 to 6 days saves vast amounts of water," added Lyons.

Compounding the necessity to conserve, earlier this week, federal wildlife officials released NEW restrictions on pumping from northern California, further exacerbating the water supply reliability problems for imported water users in cities like Long Beach, as well as San Joaquin Valley farms. The curbs placed on pumping water through the Bay Delta are intended to save the Delta Smelt, an endangered fish, from extinction. A new biological opinion, released on Monday by Fish and Wildlife's office in Sacramento, supports continuing current pumping restrictions, which have resulted in a 20 to 30 percent reduction in water deliveries, but also adopts additional pumping restrictions that the agency believes will help improve Delta Smelt habitat. These additional restrictions could in some years cut imported water deliveries to the Central Valley and southern California by half, which is a worst case scenario, but entirely feasible. Again, the Bay Delta (State Water Project) provides about 30 percent of southern California's imported water supply.

According to Kevin Wattier, General Manager of the Long Beach Water Department, the extremely weak snowpack, coupled with desperately low water storage throughout the state, not to mention the endangered species issues in the Bay Delta itself, should be a catalyst for southern California water managers to immediately increase action on extraordinary conservation measures. "We need a region-wide, full-scale effort to permanently prohibit certain outdoor watering activities."

"Mandated prohibitions on certain outdoor uses of water, which were adopted in Long Beach in September of 2007, continue to be the very best, most immediate way to save vast amounts of water," states John Allen, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners. With these mandated prohibitions, over the last twelve months, Long Beach residents have consumed less water than at any time over the past 10 years. Consumption for the past 12 months is 10.1 percent below the historical 10-year average. "We understood there would be a learning curve for us all, and that exercising these new practices would help us become the very best prepared city in southern California to deal with severe shortages; we're ready and we think it's prudent that other communities do the same," he added.

The Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners has continued to call for increased action throughout southern California, with regard to extraordinary water conservation, and particularly prohibitions on certain outdoor uses of water.

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