Long Beach Year Ahead Of Others In Water Conservation

By Harry Saltzgaver
Executive Editor

It snowed in the Sierras this winter, but not enough.

Last Thursday, it was announced that the mountain snowpack had dropped to 67% of normal — down from 116% just two months before — due to a dry March and April. That spells trouble for Southern California this summer, because a large portion of the area’s water comes from those mountains.

That news came on top of forecasts that already had water departments worried. Due to a court order, the Metropolitan Water District already has reduced by 30% the amount it is allowed to pump south from the Sacramento River. The State Water Project supplies up to half the water used in the Los Angeles basin and San Diego areas, including Long Beach.

But residents here likely won’t face any further restrictions on water use this summer, according to Kevin Wattier, general manager of the Long Beach Water Department. That’s because Long Beach is a year ahead of the rest of the area when it comes to water conservation.

Last September, the Long Beach Water Department declared an imminent water shortage, triggering a series of water restrictions, including limiting lawn watering to three days a week, banning use of water to clean off driveways, telling restaurants to require patrons to ask before serving glasses of water and more. The restrictions have worked — Long Beach has cut use by 7% or more every month since September.

But the rest of Los Angeles County and the surrounding area delayed action, even after MWD said it would raise the cost of water by 14% due to expected supply shortages. The Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners has called several times for other jurisdictions to follow its lead and require conservation measures.

“We’ve been achieving ongoing conservation savings of 7% or more,” Wattier said. “As I understand it, the MWD is going to its board next week. We believe that conservation measures need to be immediate and permanent.”

Long Beach produces about 40% of its own water through groundwater wells. Of the 60% that is purchased from MWD, two-thirds comes from the Sacramento Delta through the State Water Project.

Because of the reduced flow required to protect the Delta Smelt and the low snowpack, Southern California is expected to receive on 35% of its regular allocation from the State Water Project. Unless other cities cut use as Long Beach has, the result will be water shortages.

Still, there will not be any water rationing in Long Beach, Wattier promised.

“We never plan to do rationing again,” he said. “We learned in the drought of ’87 to ’91 that that doesn’t work. We could progressively implement additional restrictions, so you could only water two days, or one day.

“But this year I don’t think we will have to do much more. We’re essentially a year ahead of everyone else, and I don’t think it would be fair to Long Beach residents to ask them to do more until everyone else in the area is doing more.”

One thing that Long Beach and the rest of the region is sure to see is higher water rates. The one negative to conserving water, Wattier said, is that it reduces the revenue the Water Department takes in. Add that to the higher cost paid to MWD, and it translates to a rate hike. But the amount of the hike won’t be known for several weeks.

On another front, Long Beach is working to become more self-sufficient in regards to its water supply by studying a new seawater desalination system. Wattier said tests at the full-scale desalination plant are on schedule, as is a separate under-ocean floor intake and outlet test near the Junipero Avenue beach. Construction is done on that facility, with testing to begin soon.

But it will be several years — at least until 2015 — before desalination is a viable source for significant amounts of usable water. Until then, Wattier said, conservation is the only way to make a difference