The Long Beach Water Department (LBWD) is encouraging residents to save money on their water bills over the holidays by turning off their sprinkler systems while several large storm systems make their way through the Long Beach area.
As of Tuesday morning, over six inches of rain had fallen in the Long Beach area since the beginning of the storms, causing several daily rainfall records to be broken in the process.
“We are asking our customers to keep their outdoor irrigation systems turned off for at least the next couple of weeks while these storms play out,” said Kevin Wattier, General Manager for the LBWD. Â “The ground is going to be very saturated next week, and any water that you use outside is going to runoff your yard and go straight into the street and local storm drains.”
In the last three years, the city of Long Beach has quickly become the nation’s water conservation leader. Ten years ago, average daily per capita water use (the average amount of water that each person uses, each day) in the city was approximately 130 gallons. Today, that figure has dropped to below 101.5 gallons.
If the city can further reduce that number to 100 gallons or less, the Long Beach water supply will be deemed as being 100 percent reliable according to a recent decision made by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the regional water wholesaler from which Long Beach purchases 40 percent of its drinking water.
“People should really be asking themselves what they want to spend their money on this Christmas,” said Wattier. Â “Would you rather buy your child a new toy, or spend that money on some water that won’t do any good for your yard due to all the rain we are receiving.”
The LBWD is an urban, southern California retail water supply agency.
