• Dec. '07 is 10% below 10-year-average
LONG BEACH, CA, Jan. 9, 2008 -- Bill Townsend, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners, announced that Long Beach has hit yet another record low for water consumption, this time for December. Water use in Dec. was 5 percent below the lowest use for any Dec. in the last decade and 10 percent lower than the 10-year-average. For the 1st Quarter of FY2008 (Oct-Dec), Long Beach is trending nearly 8 percent lower than the 10-year-average, and is trending nearly 3 percent lower than the previous 10-year-low. In Dec. of 2002, the previous record low, Long Beach received over 6-inches of rainfall, as opposed to Dec. 2007's less than 1-inch.
On September 13th, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners issued a Declaration of Imminent Water Supply Shortage and activated the City's Emergency Water Supply Shortage Plan. As a result, the Board has issued mandatory prohibitions on certain uses of water. "The Board took the action it did to lessen the impact of an expected water supply shortage," according to Bill Townsend. "Long Beach will be among the very best prepared cities in southern California to deal with a regional water supply shortage. We are very encouraged by the response we are getting from our community and are hopeful others in southern California will join the effort."
For more information, see: http://www.lbwater.org.
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