State’s water allotment to Long Beach dries up

If you like water–as many of us do–you’d better start building a rain barrel, or digging a hole in the sand like that woman in the movie about the dunes, “Woman in Dunes.”

The state Department of Water Resources has announced that in 2008, Long Beach will get just 25 percent of the water share which the Long Beach Water Department had hoped for.

But all is not lost. According to the Press-Telegram, Kevin Wattier, who is general manager of the water department, wasn’t even expecting 25 percent–and so he budgeted downward, for a 20 percent allotment. Smart guy.

How much water is 25 percent? A lot. The P-T’s Paul Eakins says it works out to “almost 1.04 million acre-feet of water”–an acre-foot, of course, being 325,853 gallons. Of course!

Also, there’s 63 gallons in a hogshead–and two hogsheads in a butt. Think about it.

So for now, we should all stop watering our lawns, stop having lawns–and start brushing our teeth with Gatorade.

And for the record, we never get what we really want. Last year, the state water guys only gave Long Beach about 60 percent of the water we asked for. Why must they toy with us? Oh, right, the drought.

Tags: "Woman in Dunes, acre-foot, butt, California, Department of Water Resources, drought, Gatorade, Global Warming, hogshead, Kevin Wattier, Long Beach, Long Beach Water Department, Paul Eakins, press telegram, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas