PUBLICITY

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Long Beach -- Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal awarded 100 community activists, residents, businesses and city employees with "Environmental Steward" awards to highlight the diverse contributions made to support resource conservation and environmental efforts in the City of Long Beach during her annual First District presentation night at the City Council meeting.

Awardees were recognized in nine categories:

1) Community conservationists working to conserve and enhance our community,
2) Urban forest protection,
3) Water quality and conservation,
3) Reduce, reuse, and recycle,
4) Bicycling and alternative transportation,
5) Refuse and litter reduction,
6) Air quality,
7) Open space and park expansion, and
8) Energy and leadership in greenbuilding.

Water Quality and Conservation:

Nan Gladden and 735 Cedar Ave. for replanting landscaping with drought tolerant plants.

L.B. asks residents to slow the flow

Drought, import restrictions prompt water board to issue alert.

By Karen Robes, Staff writer

LONG BEACH - Fearing that new import restrictions and record low rainfall will threaten the local water supply, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners today is expected to issue a citywide conservation alert.
For now, conservation is voluntary, but the next couple of months could see mandatory restrictions on water use, said Kevin Wattier, general manager of the Long Beach Water Department.

"It's an early warning call that this is serious, this could get worse and if we save water now, it's water we can store for the future, so there's no time to waste," he said.
About half of the city's water is brought in from Northern California and the Colorado River watershed, which is in the midst of an 8-year drought.
Southern California is poised to have its driest season since 1877. This season, which ends June 30, Long Beach has received 2.10 inches of rain, about 16 percent of the 12.89 inches it normally receives, said AccuWeather meteorologist Jon Pacheco.
New regulatory uncertainties regarding how much water can be pumped from Northern California and an abrupt water pump shut-down in the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento Delta area to protect smelt populations also are taxing local supply, Wattier said.

The board will ask residents and businesses to save by checking for potential water leaks, limiting shower time and curbing over-watering and runoff.
"To me, irrigation is the most significant thing people can do right now and make a remarkable difference," Wattier said.
Some residents are already doing their part.
Lenny Arkinstall, who founded the Los Cerritos Wetlands Conservancy, is working on a project involving more water-saving salt-grass plants that could replace the city's landscape turf.
"If water went up in price like gas, people would start conserving it," he said.
The 27-unit La Serena Apartments complex on Cedar Avenue has low-flow toilets, bulbs that help conserve energy and copper piping to extend water heating.
Six months ago, the lawn and non-native plants were replaced with drought-resistant plants such as blue-eyed grass, coyote mint, meadow sedge and seaside daisy.
"If we have normal rainfall, we won't have to water it at all," said tenant Nan Gladden. "If we have a drought, we would have to only water every three weeks, and it looks fabulous. I mean, if this is all it takes for it to look great, I'm surprised that everybody isn't doing it."
Meanwhile, the Long Beach Water Department will join Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's $6.5 million regional radio and TV advertising campaign, set to start July 1.
On the Net: www.lbwater.org/conservation/programs.html