You know how good you feel on the fresh and sunshiny day that almost inevitably follows a dark-and-drenching rain in Southern California? The people at the Long Beach Water Department never feel that way. That’s what I like about them.

Take today, for instance. While the rest of us are soaking in the honeyed sun and deeply inhaling the well-washed air, the Water Department officials are all moldy-faced and sighing and sending out a reminder that all the wet weather we just had didn’t do a thing to alleviate our drought.

“While recent storms have provided local rain and snow, snowpack in the northern Sierra Nevada is currently 90 percent below normal for the year,” read the department’s downbeat news release. “Northern Sierra snowpack is a primary imported water source for Central Valley and southern California farms and cities.   Long Beach imports half its water supply.”

In case that doesn’t bum you out bad enough, the news release follows up with more:

 ”Compounding the necessity to conserve, earlier this week federal wildlife officials released new restrictions on pumping from northern California, further exacerbating the water supply reliability problems for imported water users in cities like Long Beach, as well as San Joaquin Valley farms.

“The curbs placed on pumping water through the Bay Delta are intended to save the Delta Smelt, an endangered fish, from extinction.   A new biological opinion, released on Monday by Fish and Wildlife’s office in Sacramento, supports continuing current pumping restrictions, which have resulted in a 20 to 30 percent reduction in water deliveries, but also adopts additional pumping restrictions that the agency believes will help improve Delta Smelt habitat.

“These additional restrictions could in some years cut imported water deliveries to the Central Valley and southern California by half, which is a worst case scenario, but entirely feasible.  Again, the Bay Delta (State Water Project) provides about 30 percent of southern California’s imported water supply.”

So, all that rain wasn’t good for anything? Well, kinda, the Water Department concedes.

“We need to take advantage of the rain we’ve received over the last couple of days and use it wisely,” according to Matt Lyons, Director of Conservation and Planning.  “This rain is enough to allow all of us to shut our irrigation systems off for several days.”

 Between 50 and 70 percent of all the water used in Long Beach is used outside the home, primarily on lush, non-native landscapes.   “Not having to irrigate for 4 to 6 days saves vast amounts of water,” added Lyons.

Thanks, I feel…better?

Tags: delta smelt, drought, Long Beach Water Department, rain, Sierra, snowpack