Monday, February 9, 2009

Long Beach, Shut Your Sprinklers Off All Week!

The recent rains have given us enough water to shut down our sprinkler systems all week. No need to irrigate! Take advantage of the rain. Stop Wasting Water!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Shut Off Your Sprinklers

If your sprinklers are running at all today or anytime through the beginning of next week, you are wasting water! The recent rainfall, which will continue through the weekend, allows us to complete shut off irrigation systems until at least NEXT Thursday! If you've not shut down your systems, please remember to do it TODAY! Thanks for your support Long Beah.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Long Beach Hits Record Low Water Use in January

Long Beach Hits Record Low Water Consumption in January
Jan '09 was 19.3% below average; despite third hottest Jan. on record in LA County

LONG BEACH, CA - Today, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners are praising the actions of Long Beach Water Department customers, who continue to shatter 10-year record lows for water consumption, during what is shaping up as the worst California water supply crisis in modern history. Long Beach water consumption for January '09 was 19.3 percent below the 10-year historical average. The 10-year historical average is from FY'98 to FY'07, which are the 10 years prior to Long Beach's call for extraordinary conservation and prohibitions on certain outdoor uses of water. January '09 was 8.8 percent below January '08. January '09 was the third hottest January on record in Los Angeles County, and Long Beach received only 0.17 inches of precipitation; whereas normal precipitation in Long Beach is 2.95 inches. January '09 is the thirteenth record setting month for low water consumption since September 2007.

Early last month, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners issued a water supply ALERT for the City of Long Beach and southern California, due to extremely weak precipitation and snow pack in the northern Sierra Nevada; an uneventful forecast for northern California watersheds, including new predictions of dry La Nina conditions forming in the Pacific Ocean; extremely low water supply reserve levels; and the anticipated additional curtailment of imported water deliveries from north to south due to endangered species issues. The new ALERT urges Long Beach residents to sustain the City's record breaking reductions in water use. More importantly, Long Beach Water officials are urging area cities to engage their residents. "Our current water supply conditions should be a catalyst for southern California water supply managers to immediately increase action on extraordinary conservation measures, particularly prohibiting certain outdoor uses of water, stated John Allen, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners. "Southern California water suppliers should be practicing and preparing for the worst; hope is not an adequate strategy."

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, over a year ago now, to forestall and lessen the impact of an expected water supply shortage," according to Board president, John Allen. The Board's Declaration in 2007 was necessitated by the profound impact of permanent reductions to imported water deliveries into southern California; the dramatic reductions in water storage levels in key reservoirs in northern California; and climate realities.

Long Beach Conservation by the Numbers:

Note: The 10-year historical average is from FY 98 - FY 07, which are the 10 years prior to conservation. The 5-year historical average is from FY 03 - FY 07, which are the 5 years prior to conservation.

Month of January
10-yr High: 5,300 (January FY 07)
Historical 10-yr Avg: 4,950
Actual 10-yr Avg: 4,950
10-yr Low: 4,500 (January FY 00)
January FY 08: 4,400
January FY 09: 4,000
Historical 5-yr Avg: 5,100

Of Note:
- January FY 09 is 19.3% below Historical 10-year average
- January FY 09 is 21.5% below Historical 5-year average
- January FY 09 is 18.8% below the Actual 10-year average
- January FY 09 is 8.8% below January FY 08

January Year-to-Date
10-yr High: 21,900 (YTD FY 00)
Historical 10-yr Avg: 21,250
Actual 10-yr Avg: 21,100
10-yr Low: 20,250 (YTD FY 05)
YTD January FY 08: 19,600
YTD January FY 09: 17,800
Historical 5-yr Avg: 21,150

Of Note:
- January FY 09 YTD is 16.2% below Historical 10-year average
- January FY 09 YTD is 15.8% below Historical 5-year average
- January FY 09 YTD is 15.6% below the Actual 10-year average
- January FY 09 YTD is 9.1% below January FY 08 YTD

January FY 09 to January FY 08 Comparison
Demand
January FY 08: 4,400 AF
January FY 09: 4,000 AF

Precipitation:
Normal*: 2.95 inches
January FY 08: 5.89 inches
January FY 09: 0.17 inches

Temperature:
Normal*: 57.0 degrees
January FY 08: 55.0 degrees
January FY 09: 60.0 degrees
* Normal as defined by National Weather Service

Of Note:
- Demand for January FY 09 was 8.8% lower than January FY 08, even though it was much drier and warmer.

Running 12-month Total
Historical 12-month Average: 68,128
Recent 12 months: 60,057
Recent Conservation: 11.8%

Monday, February 2, 2009

South State City Turns Down Tap

South state city turns down tapBy Matt Weiser
mweiser@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Feb. 02, 2009 | Page 16A
The city of Long Beach says it won't require additional customer cutbacks this year, because it successfully changed residents' water habits.

In 2007, Long Beach – which depends on imported water from the Delta and local groundwater – predicted long-term shortages. Rather than order residents to ration water, the city set out to make it socially unacceptable to waste water.

The city outlawed certain types of water waste, especially irresponsible landscape irrigation. It encouraged residents to report violators. It imposed tiered pricing to punish gluttons. And it used the Internet to spread its message.

Since then it has received 4,500 complaints about water waste. It followed up on every one with enforcement action.

The city achieved an 11 percent water savings in 2008, including 24 percent in December.

Now city officials say they are ready for a third drought year.

"I expect it to be a hardship for every other city in Southern California that has a significant reliance on imported water, because they haven't been as proactive," said water department General Manager Kevin Wattier.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Call The Bee's Matt Weiser, (916) 321-1264.

Friday, January 30, 2009

The Water Solution

Editorial: Long Beach Press Telegram
The water solution
Posted: 01/29/2009 10:37:57 PM PST

Shortages have become permanent, so pols must adopt Long Beach's plan.
Southern Californians won't have much melted snow in their drinking water this season, which will worsen an alarming shortage. Fortunately, the solution is easy.
At least the Water Department in Long Beach makes it look easy. It seems to be the only big-city agency that is well-prepared for the worst water shortages the region ever has experienced.
Droughts have come and gone, some of them even more severe, but they went away when the rains returned. The present shortages appear to have become permanent.
You're not hearing much about it yet because politicians, who control the big water agencies, haven't been willing to deal with it. While they dawdled, the region's vast storage capacity has been drying up.
Long Beach was the exception. While politicians in L.A. talked a lot about cutting back on water usage, all they managed to accomplish was a saving of 1 percent, and we're exaggerating to be charitable. Long Beach has cut water usage 11 times that much.
Here's what's coming next. The news this week that the Sierra snow pack continues to be below historical averages, together with earlier court-ordered reductions to save the endangered Delta smelt, means that Southern California's giant Metropolitan Water District, among others, will get only a fraction of what it needs from the State Water Project. Consequently in April, when MWD sets its rates and allocation levels, you can expect that consumers will start paying more and getting less.
Many water agencies on the receiving end are looking at rationing and punitive measures, which is a mistake because rationing penalizes those who already have been conserving water. L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa even talks about water police to enforce cutbacks that now are inevitable.
They should take a lesson from Long Beach, whose Water Commission implemented a conservation program months ago. But instead of a punitive approach, it enlisted consumers in the effort. The program, among other restrictions, made watering legal only on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays before 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m. Offenders got a polite letter as a reminder, and consumers began using a phone line to identify offenders.
Wasting water has become socially unacceptable in Long Beach, and residents seem committed to the plan. There have been only four or five repeated offenders, all of them businesses, and all of which surely will quit wasting water in the face of increasingly stiff fines.
When the smaller water allocations do come down from the MWD, Long Beach won't have to do a thing to comply. Its residents, now aware how easy it is to reduce water wastage where most of it occurs, on lawns and gardens, already have begun to use this scarce commodity responsibly.
If the MWD and politicians in places like L.A. and San Diego also had acted prudently months ago, Southern California's reservoirs still would be full, but they didn't, and the reservoirs are emptying rapidly.
Now there is no other choice.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

"The Worst CA Drought in Modern History"

The Worst CA Drought in Modern History"
New snow survey: 49% of normal in northern Sierra

SACRAMENTO, CA - The California Department of Water Resources' (DWR) second snow survey of the winter season indicates snow water content is 61 percent of normal to date, statewide, and only 49 percent of normal, to date, in the northern Sierra Nevada. “The low precipitation in January and snowpack results from today’s survey indicate California is heading for a third dry year,” said DWR Director Lester Snow. “We may be at the start of the worst California drought in modern history. It’s imperative for Californians to conserve water immediately at home and in their businesses.”

Long Beach Water officials, earlier this month, issued a new water supply ALERT for the City of Long Beach and southern California, due to extremely weak precipitation and snow pack in the northern Sierra Nevada; an uneventful forecast for northern California watersheds, including new predictions of dry La Nina conditions forming in the Pacific Ocean; extremely low water supply reserve levels; and the anticipated additional curtailment of imported water deliveries from north to south due to endangered species issues. Today's survey likely means that water deliveries for the Bay Area, Central Valley and southern California will likely be reduced even further in 2009, according to Kevin Wattier, General Manager of Long Beach Water. "State water deliveries into southern California could likely be reduced by more than 90 percent if current conditions persist; the snow season will be over in 60 days."

Long Beach residents are being urged to sustain the City's record breaking reductions in water use, which is 15 percent below the City's historical 10-year average for the Fiscal Year started in October 2008. More importantly, Long Beach Water officials are calling on area cities to engage their residents. "These realities should be a catalyst for southern California water supply managers to immediately increase action on extraordinary conservation measures," stated John Allen, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners. "Southern California water suppliers should be practicing for the worst; hope is not an adequate strategy here."

Background:

Precipitation and snow pack for the northern Sierra Nevada, the primary water supply source for the Bay Delta watershed from which southern California receives 30 percent of its imported water, is way below normal for the year. The most recent snow survey, announced today, showed that northern Sierra snowpack was only 49 percent of normal for the year.

Compounding the necessity to conserve, in early December, federal wildlife officials released ADDITIONAL restrictions on pumping from northern California. Last year, restrictions were placed on pumping water through the Bay Delta to mitigate the impact that pumping was having on the Delta Smelt, an endangered fish. A new biological opinion, released on December 15, 2008, 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. Scientists say that the decline of smelt populations are an indicator of the health of the entire Bay-Delta ecosystem, and representative of a much larger decline in local fisheries, including the longfin smelt, threadfin shad, and Chinook salmon. The National Marine Fisheries Service is scheduled to issue a new biological opinion in the coming weeks to protect the Chinook salmon, following last years collapse of the west coast salmon fishing season, and the long-fin smelt is being recommended for the endangered species list by the California Department of Fish and Game.

Even more, 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 this year. Today's snow survey will likely move that percentage higher.

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, over a year ago now, to forestall and lessen the impact of an expected water supply shortage," according to Board president, John Allen. The Board's Declaration in 2007 was necessitated by the profound impact of permanent reductions to imported water deliveries into southern California; the dramatic reductions in water storage levels in key reservoirs in northern California; and climate realities.

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

E-Watering Update - Realtime Irrigation Instruction

LONG BEACH WATER DEPARTMENT The Standard in Water Conservation & Environmental Stewardship
e W a t e r i n g U p d a t e
We're warming up!
Time to turn your sprinklers back on, but not very much. Set your timers to 20%, 2 days a week. Example if you typically water for 10 minutes at each station then set your timer for 2 minutes. Thanks!
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