(April 2, 2015) -- LB Water Dept. General Manager Kevin Watier told LB's Board of Water Commissioners today (April 2) that Long Beach impacts from Governor Brown's Executive Order mandating a 25% reduction in water consumption statewide (previously reported by LBREPORT.com) may be less than a 25% reduction here because Long Beach has already reduced its per capita water usage since 2013 to a measurable extent.

However, Mr. Watier indicated that the exact amount of the mandatory reduction that will be expected from Long Beach residents, businesses and the City itself isn't yet known because the State Water Resources Control Board (that the Governor's office tasked to implement the reductions) hasn't come up with figures yet...and has never been tasked to do anything of this magnitude before..

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Mr. Watier said the Governor's Executive Order will take into account per capita water consumption when the state Water Quality Control Board determines the amount of reductions required for each urban retail water supplier. That's significant, he explained, because "those of us that use much much less than the typical Californian as we do here in Long Beach will not obviously need to do the 25%, and those who use much much more than we do in Long Beach will need to do more than 25% in order for the math to work."

In other words, Long Beach may not have to meet a 25% reduction level...and whatever it will have to meet isn't yet known with precision.

LB Water Commissioner Bob Shannon noted that establishing the baseline is critical and pursued the point, asking "Where do we go from here?" GM Watier explained that while it's clear that 2013 is the timeframe baseline, in terms of a per capita consumption baseline, that's not yet known...and the state agency itself may not know yet. "They've never done this before," he noted, and added that the LB Water Dept. has an excellent working relationship with the state agency and expects to be working closely with them. Commissioner Shannon pressed further. "At the end of the day...do you expect that the state board will mandate a particular baseline and a particular percentage of cutback for Long Beach?" GM Watier replied, "Yes, but it might be zero [light room laughter]...but the assignment they got from the Governor was to do that for every retail water agency in California." And the penalties for failure to comply? "$10,000 a day," Mr. Watier replied.

Mr. Watier also noted that a significant aspect of the Governor's Executive Order deserves attention: the portion that prohibits using potable water for ornamental turf and street medians. Mr. Watier said the LB Water Dept. has made LB's Parks, Rec and Marine Dept. aware of this. [Further on this aspect of the story coming on LBREPORT.com.]

Mr. Watier also made reference to reductions from the Metropolitan Water District [from which LB receives a portion of its potable water] which are separate and above those mandated by the Governor's Executive Order. Depending on what tier level is applied, Mr. Watier indicated that the LB reduction could be as large as 7-8%. [Caveat: Mr. Watier also indicated there's some conflicting information on what MWD will or won't do this at this point for which clarification is being sought.]

Further as this LB-impacting story develops on LBREPORT.com.