Water Supply Shortage Hits Long Beach, California

LONG BEACH, California, September 14, 2007 (ENS) - A water supply shortage is "imminent," the Long Beach Water Board warned Thursday, under a formal declaration that activates the city's Emergency Water Supply Shortage Plan.

As of Thursday, Long Beach residents and businesses can no longer irrigate any landscape with potable drinking quality water during daylight hours or more than three days a week.

Neither can they wash driveways, sidewalks, parking areas, patios or other outdoor cemented or paved areas with a garden hose, unless it is attached to pressurized water broom.

In addition to eliminating landscape over-watering and all water run-off, residents are instructed to immediately reduce time in the shower, install low-flow shower heads, and check water meters for potential leaks.

The Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners officially declared a water supply shortage to be "imminent," at a meeting held Thursday at the Long Beach Water Department's Groundwater Treatment Facility.

The Board said the water shortage is occuring in part because of the "profound impact" of a U.S. District Court's federal Endangered Species Act ruling on August 31 that requires the state to pump less water from the San Joaquin Delta to prevent the extinction of a small, silvery fish - the Delta smelt.

The water supply shortage is also due in part to "the dramatic, recent reductions in water storage levels in key reservoirs in northern California," the Board said, as well as this year's record low rainfall in the southern California coastal plain, and a continuation of the historic eight year drought in the Colorado River Watershed, which is a significant source of imported water for southern California.

"I'd like to stress that while we continue to communicate our need to conserve more of the water we're using, it is increasingly clear that what is going to have to take place in not only our community, but throughout southern California, is a profound lifestyle change in the way all of us think about, and use, water," said Frank Clarke, president of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners.

"Our society is using water inefficiently. The faster we reduce inefficient uses, the longer we will be able to delay or avoid all together mandatory cutbacks that will impact us all in a very tangible way," Clarke said.

"What we are experiencing is a profound change in our water supply situation, but I have tremendous confidence in our city and our citizens that we can meet this challenge head-on if we are pro-active and work together," said Kevin Wattier, general manager of the Long Beach Water Department.

Under the declaration, the Long Beach Water Department will intensify its pleas to the public to conserve water until further action is taken by the Board.

If necessary, Board says it may declare more serious stages of the now activated Emergency Water Supply Shortage Plan, and may even increase mandatory prohibitions on use of drinking water in the City of Long Beach.

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