By People can now be fined for watering their lawns.
The Board of Water Commissioners declared an Imminent Water Supply Stage 3 Shortage this week, limiting the number of days that residents and businesses can water landscape in Long Beach.
“We have been using smart meter technology to take action on residents and businesses that have been wasting a lot of water and have not responded to notifications and changed their behavior during this unprecedented drought,” Assistant to the General Manager of the Long Beach Water Department Kaylee Weatherly said.
The smart meter allows customers to view their water usage in five-minute increments to see how much water they are using, according to the Long Beach Water Department.
“This new technology is important, because it is being used to help residents and businesses change their behavior and reduce heavy water use,” Weatherly said. “In some cases, it has been used to help customers correct their behavior or detect a leak without having to levy a fine.”
Weatherly said that in November 2014, the Board of Water Commissioners declared a Stage 1 Water Supply Shortage that further tightened restrictions on water usage in Long Beach.
The new regulations state that residents and businesses can only irrigate their landscapes on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays for 10 minutes per station per watering day, or 20 minutes if using water-efficient rotation nozzles before 9 a.m. or after 4p.m.
“The LBWD has created an app called ‘Report a Water Waster’ which allows anyone using the app or website to take pictures and report water wasters directly to the LBWD,” CSULB Sustainability Assistant Melissa Romero said. “They then follow up with all reports made.”
Romero said that the app is great because it creates a more effective way to enforce water restrictions. That puts the power in the citizens because the LBWD does not have enough employees to send out 24/7 to make sure everyone is abiding the regulations, he said.
Weatherly said that the app has helped them issue a fine to a business that violated four different water restrictions.
CSULB has implemented a Sustainable Master Landscape Plan that involves weather-based irrigation systems that only water plants when needed, Romero said.
“The system is an expanded reclaimed water system for irrigation and lawn conversions to drought tolerant landscaping,” Romero said.
According to the LBWD, residents and businesses cannot wash their vehicles with a hose unless it has a water shutoff nozzle or device attached to the hose.
“People can conserve water by washing their car less or stop washing it altogether and sign the dirty car pledge at lawaterkeeper.org/dirtyforthedrought,” Romero said. “There are so many things people can do to conserve water.”
Although Long Beach has always had permanent water restrictions in effect under its water shortage plan, the LBWD is making efforts to solve the present problems by creating the app and enforcing stricter regulations.
