Jerry Schubel, far left, the Aquarium of the Pacific’s president and CEO, introduces a group of experts and local government officials, including Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, second from left, at the Aquarium on Monday, Nov. 24 during a gathering to discuss water-conservation plans.
Staff Writer
As reservoirs in California have reached record low levels, leaving groundwater basins dry, leading experts and government officials gathered in Long Beach last week to call for new water-saving measures in dealing with the ongoing drought.
Nearly a dozen experts joined government officials, including Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and Congressmember Alan Lowenthal, at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach on Monday, Nov. 24 during a gathering organized by the Long Beach Water Department to discuss water-conservation plans.
The gathering took place just days before the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners, on Friday, Nov. 21, declared a “Stage 1 Water Supply Shortage” and passed new water-use restrictions that limit landscape watering in the city to two days per week, Mondays and Thursdays, through the end of March 2015.
The City’s three-day-per-week landscape-watering rule, which was implemented in February, will resume during the summer months, from April 1 through Sept. 30.
The City encourages residents to report “water wasters.” However, the City has shied away from imposing fines for violations.
After California has experienced three consecutive years of drought, most of the state’s reservoirs are now at about 33-percent capacity, officials said, adding that Lake Orville, the main source of water for the State Water Project that partially replenishes local groundwater supplies with “imported” water, is expected to reach its lowest level in state history by the end of this year, according to water officials.
Though it’s uncertain how much rainfall there will be this winter, experts predict that Southern California will use half of its stored water before Dec. 31, forcing the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) to set water allocation for 2015 at the lowest level in state history. This means that, if the drought persists into next year, there will only be a year’s worth of imported water left for cities to replenish groundwater supplies, according to water officials.
“This is incredibly concerning to all of us, and there’s a lot more for us here to obviously do,” said Mayor Garcia, who noted that El Niño conditions predicted earlier this year have yet to be seen. “We have not had significant rainfall, and we may or may not have a wet winter. So those are issues that we’ve got to be prepared for to meet that challenge.”
In an interview with the Signal Tribune, he said that, while there are efforts to tap new groundwater supplies, surface water in reservoirs is at a “critical” point, and about 82 percent of California is now experiencing “extreme drought” conditions.
“If we don’t get any more supply into those reservoirs this year, we’re down to about a year’s worth of surface-water supply left,” Laber said. “There’s still groundwater supply that we’re tapping into, but, for surface-water supply, it’s getting critical.”
Jerry Schubel, the Aquarium’s president and CEO, announced a list of recommendations, including: restrictions on outdoor water use, such as lawns, highway medians, cemeteries, large commercial landscapes and golf courses; a new tiered pricing structure for water to reflect high use while protecting those least able to pay; a groundwater inventory; and a public education program.
He said new state legislation, in addition to the recently passed water bond, might be needed. Other recommendations Schubel identified include using water recycling, stormwater capture, smart meters for consumers, permeable pavement and certified greywater systems, as well as investing in infrastructure to eliminate water leaks.
Kevin Wattier, general manager for the Long Beach Water Department, said Long Beach purchases about 40 percent of its water from MWD while the other 60 percent is pumped out of the groundwater basin. However, he said the City has yet to receive water that it purchased from MWD in February, adding that the situation might get worse next year.
Wattier said cities are working together to come up with new ways to replenish groundwater with other water sources, such as recycled water, which is sewage water that has been treated and turned into drinking water.
Madelyn Glickfeld, assistant director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and a member of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, confirmed that regional projects are moving forward this year that would enable cities to use a higher percentage of recycled water to replenish groundwater supplies.
Garcia said Long Beach has led the state in reducing water consumption with total per-capita water consumption dropping to 111 gallons per person, per day, which hasn’t occured since 1946.
Still, he implored residents to use even less water and announced that the City is studying ways to cut back on water use on fleet services, in parks and inside City Hall.
“We want to ask the community to be patient and to understand that, if parks are not as green, that if our cars are not as clean as they normally are, it’s because we want to do everything we can to conserve water,” Garcia said.
Additionally, he said the City, the Water Department and the Aquarium are collaborating on a new social-media campaign that encourages residents to share ways to conserve water on websites, using the hashtag #savewaterlb .
