Long Beach Water Applauds the MWD's Regional Call for Immediate Cut in Outdoor Water...

Long Beach Water Applauds the MWD's Regional Call for Immediate Cut in Outdoor Water Use

LONG BEACH, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
The Long Beach Water Department is applauding today's announcement
by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California of a public
relations campaign to curtail outdoor water use in southern
California. The MWD has announced a 13-week advertising effort to urge
southern California residents to cut outdoor watering at least one day
each week to help restore badly depleted emergency water storage
reserves. The advertising campaign is reportedly the "largest,
multi-pronged, public information and outreach campaign in MWD's
history." Nancy Sutley, chair of the MWD Water Planning and
Stewardship Committee said, "The MWD is on track this year to draw on
as much as one-quarter of southern California's emergency reserves. At
this rate, we could deplete our stored reserves in a few years."

"I am very happy to hear the news from the MWD today," states
Kevin L. Wattier, General Manager of the Long Beach Water Department.
"I'm hopeful that every water consumer in southern California will
heed this message." Early this month, Long Beach Water reported that
northern California water supply reservoirs have been rapidly depleted
this year to meet California's demand for water, due to the effects of
record drought. In fact, the volume of water stored in these critical
supply reservoirs is, collectively, 2.6 million-acre-feet (30 percent)
less today then at this time last year. Today, lake Oroville only
holds 55 percent as much water as it did this time, just one year ago.
Despite this year's average snow pack in the Sierra Mountains, the
California Department of Water Resources has recently announced that
water deliveries to the Bay Area, the Central Valley and to southern
California "will be far below normal this year," due to a recent
Federal court ruling which has significantly restricted pumping in the
Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta.

"What this means is that we've essentially moved into a world
where even in NORMAL years, we don't have enough water," according to
Wattier. "Without a more aggressive effort to implement extraordinary
conservation, among other important longer term solutions, southern
California is currently positioning itself for catastrophic failure in
the event of a protracted drought."

Late last month, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners
renewed their call for immediate, extraordinary conservation. "We need
to engineer a permanent lifestyle change in the way we all see and use
our water, so that inefficient and wasteful uses are no longer
tolerated by anyone," stated Bill Townsend, the Commission's
President. "The only way a successful effort is going to be sustained,
is if we have all of Southern California on board."

Beginning in June 2007, the Long Beach Board of Water
Commissioners implemented extraordinary conservation measures,
including enforcement of new citywide restrictions on certain outdoor
uses of water. These efforts have achieved an additional 6 percent
reduction in water use citywide through March of this year.

The MWD is a public agency that wholesales imported water to
retail water agencies, like the Long Beach Water Department,
throughout southern California. Nearly half of the water used in Long
Beach is purchased from the MWD.

The Long Beach Water Department is an urban, southern California
retail water supply agency and the standard in water conservation and
environmental stewardship.

Long Beach Water Department
Ryan J. Alsop, 562-570-2314

Copyright Business Wire 2008