Water Shortages Hit Long Beach
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 09.16.07
An already rough couple of months just got worse for the residents of Long Beach, California: prompted by the record drought afflicting the region and a court ruling likely to limit water deliveries from northern parts of the state, the city has imposed the most stringent water restrictions in recent times. Southern Californian authorities believe these restrictions could be just the precursor for what will happen in other cities in the region.
The ruling by a federal judge last month - which would cut water deliveries from the vitally important Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta - could reduce water supplies to Southern California by 30% when it takes effect this winter. The city's Metropolitan Water District (MWD), which typically receives up to 60% of its water from the delta, is in the process of finalizing water allocations based on the ruling. This is likely to cause significant rises in the prices of additional water deliveries, a cost that will inevitably be passed down to the consumers.
So far, Long Beach's water board has prohibited its residents from watering their grasses during the day, limiting it to only 3 times a week, and prohibited the use of water hoses to clean driveways, sidewalks and other paved/cemented areas unless they use pressurized water devices. Its restaurants are not allowed to serve customers water unless specifically requested to do so, and hotels are required to give guests the option of reusing towels and linens without having them washed on a daily basis.
Los Angeles' Department of Water and Power (DWP) may follow Long Beach's lead in enacting a strict water rationing regime if the ruling goes through, as expected, and if Southern California has another dry winter. David Nahai - the president of the DWP board - responding to concerns about imminent shortages, stated that:
"Because water has been plentiful, with that came a certain degree of comfort and complacency. We have to jolt Angelenos out of that kind of mind-set. If things don't turn out favorably, we may return to [drought] protocols."
Given Southern Californians' profligate waste of water (God knows how much is wasted on a daily basis simply to hose down cars or ginormous lawns), such restrictions may prove beneficial in recalibrating residents' priorities. While some might argue that it'd be more ideal to wean individuals off the excessive consumption of water gradually, mandating these supply restrictions may finally snap a (unfortunate) decades-old mindset common in the region that has typically disregarded resource conservation.
Via ::Los Angeles Times: Long Beach puts limits on water use (newspaper), ::Environment News Service: Water Supply Shortage Hits Long Beach, California (news website)
See also: ::Drought Again
Image courtesy of Kevitivity via flickr
'such restrictions may prove beneficial in recalibrating residents' priorities. While some might argue that it'd be more ideal to wean individuals off the excessive consumption of water gradually, mandating these supply restrictions may finally snap a (unfortunate) decades-old mindset common in the region that has typically disregarded resource conservation.'
Too true. Nobody wants to be forced to do the right thing and nobody wants to have to force others to do the right thing. But very often laws and regulations and restrictions do have to be implemented because either the mass of people are not changing their habits fast enough to deal acceptably with the societal problem or because there is a subset of the population who refuses to change no matter what the problem and its consequences. There will always be occassions where things either don't change fast enough or where an implaccably stubborn, selfish subset cares more about watering their perfect lawns than they do about society's overall water needs.
One of the most difficult parts can simply be convincing Southern Californians that they do indeed live in a desert climate. I remember the news reports from several years ago during a drought, and they were interviewing people on the street. Comments along the lines of "does this look like a desert?" were common. People here don't realize how artificial all the green lawns and such are.
I rather liked one of the comments about lawn watering that one of the weather reporters made down here (Loren Nancarrow, I think) about how it's not so much how often you water a lawn, it's how deeply, and that most people waste a lot of water by watering at the wrong time, for too short a time and too often. I don't recall for certain, but I think it was something like 1 inch of water a week is plenty for a lawn.
I have a high tolerance for brown in my lawn. I rent, so landscaping has little to do with my choices, but I do like a lawn for the kids to play on. Gets them outside, but it doesn't need to be golf course green to be fun.
I have never lived in a city that wasted as much water as Los Angeles. People wash their cars in their driveways twice-a-week. People use hoses to "sweep" their sidewalks - even the city! I watched a city truck park on a corner and worker emerge with a pressure hose in order to "sweep" the bus stop. There is a gross waste of that precious resource here. The city does nothing to try to educate the population, and the population is apparently clueless. I've heard it's even worse in bug agriculture here, b/c the state does not fully charge them for their water - I'm not sure how accurate that is, but that's what i've heard.
Water in LA is way too cheap anyway. I've never paid more than $25/month including my connection fee, and thats when my sprinkler system got stuck on for half a day.
Its not just landscaping, most people have no idea how much water old-style toilets waste. If LA got rid of every single water-wasting toilet, we probably wouldn't have to change anything else.
There won't be long term change here unless we can change the politician's minds. I have lived in Southern California all my life and these same changes happened in all the previous drought years. The minute it rains, they lift them. There is no water recycling or water capture in the Los Angeles basin. I live 60 miles northeast in the Mojave Desert and the city actually requires landscaped yards which in their terms means manicured lawns. Every new home comes planted with one. Of course they plant a drought-resistant tree right in the middle of the blue fescue lawn. Like that will help. When one of the local water agencies called for cutbacks, the city actually told them no.
I personally only water the lawn in my front yard because it was there when I moved in and I haven't had a chance to remove it yet. That is my next project. However when I moved in, the sprinklers were set to water the grass for a total of 84 minutes per week. Now they water the lawn for 40 minutes per week and I will decrease that further as I remove large portions of it and replace with more appropriate plantings. Its no worse for the wear though and I cut my water usage by 50%. I only wash my car twice a month so as not to get fined by the city and would never think to use water to clean the driveway or sidewalk. I have a good broom for that.
But once it rains, Long Beach will lift its restrictions. They have done so in all previous drought years.
The current problems being faced by L.A. County is the same sword of damocles that hangs over every metro area in the U.S.A., a shortage of sufficient water to serve the population. It doesn't have to that way. There is a very low energy, i.e., low cost solution currently available that is concept proven and only needs about $3 million for it to be available to the water and wastewater industries which are voracious users of fresh water. Actually the wastewater industries is also an alternative source of very cheap fuel created by this technology. The bottom line is that these industries can do this for virtually no cost. Find us an investor or two and the technology will be operational within six months wherever it is needed the most.
I'm so tired of hearing this ridiculous nonsense about our shortage of water. Every few years we hear the same thing, its an electric crisis, its a gas crisis, its a water crisis. The only crisis we have is the sortage of intelligece among the residents and "green" freaks.
Throughout the last 100 years California has experienced both wet and dry years, sometimes those dry years come in sucession of one another and cuase a "drought" condition, but guess what happens? The water comes back, statistically we always have more "wet" years then "dry" years.
http://watersupplyconditions.water.ca.gov/background.cfm
The current rules, regulations and restrictions being imposed only server one purpose, to generate revenue for the city of Long Beach. Just like most other "crisis" situations we face on a daily basis, most are made up to get you to pay more for something or make extra revenue for the city by imposing a fine.
We aren't running out of water, what we are doing is not using our resources to the best efficiency - how about the city cutting back on watering of parkways and parks? How about the city cutting back on the fountains they have at City Hall? You see in a California "crisis", it just means we charge the citizen a higher price, or for those not so lucky, we write them a ticket
The only crisis we have is the sortage of intelligece among the residents and "green" freaks.
Trolling an environmental site with hate speech - how original.