Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster has accepted the “Wyland Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation,” a contest to discover which Southern California city is the most eco-friendly.
From April 1-30, Long Beach residents can visit mywaterpledge.com to make a pledge to conserve water in competition against other cities in Los Angeles County and Orange County. On Wednesday, Long Beach had about 400 pledges and was in second place behind Hermosa Beach.
The city that ends up with the highest percentage of pledges will win the title of greenest city. In addition, residents from the winning city will be eligible to win prizes such as Disneyland tickets, tickets to a Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball game and passes to the Aquarium of the Pacific.
According to Matthew Veeh, director of government and public affairs for the Long Beach Water Department, this competition came at exactly the right time. Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown declared the drought in California to be over. According to Veeh, this doesn’t mean we should forget about water conservation.
“We don’t want people to return to old habits of wasting water,” Veeh said. “We want people to permanently adopt a lifestyle of responsible water use.”
The competition was created by the Wyland Foundation, which uses public programs to stress the importance of healthy oceans and waterways.
According to Steve Creech, vice president of Wyland, this is the first time something like this is being done.
“Cities like it because, instead of having a state mandate imposed on them for resource usage reductions, there is a positive incentive,” Creech said via email.
Right now, approximately 20 cities are competing and more are expected to join by the end of the month.
It does not cost anything for cities to join and, even if a person’s hometown is not participating, they can still go online and make the pledge to conserve water.
Creech said that he believes one person can make a difference with small changes.
“The bottom line is that, by making these pledges, people discover just how large an impact they can make over the course of a year with a few small changes in their lifestyle,” Creech said.
According to Allie Bussjaeger, a senior psychology major and team manager of Green Campus who has been active in making Cal State Long Beach an eco-friendly campus, measures are also being taken around campus to conserve water.
There is a centralized weather-based irrigation system that measures rainfall, so when it rains a lot, the sprinklers won’t come on. She also said that drought-resistant gardens have been planted around campus.
“Water is the ultimate source of life and if we are wasting it, there are a lot of repercussions,” Bussjaeger said. “So much of our energy comes from water and while we may be out of a drought right now, things always shift.”
Disclaimer: The Daily 49er is not responsible for Postings made on www.daily49er.wpengine.com. Persons commenting are solely responsible for Postings made on this website. Persons commenting agree to the Terms of Use of the website. If Postings do not abide by the Rules of Conduct or Posting Regulations as listed in the Postings Policy, the Daily 49er has all rights to delete Postings as it deems necessary. The Daily 49er strongly advises individuals to not abuse their First Amendment rights, and to avoid language suggestive of hate speech. This site also encourages users to make Postings relevant to the article or other Postings.
