Moreover, while many might say that gasoline is the lifeblood of this sprawling suburb- and freeway-laced oasis, the more mundane reality is that water is the true lifeblood of Southern California.

More to the point, anyone who has seen Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, read of the early 20th-century California Water Wars or simply looked upon the still-existing public works of William Mulholland with awe, knows that Southern California is in actuality an engineered oasis. This pseudo-oasis was built with the single goal of transforming the desert landscape into a water-rich area able to support a booming megalopolis.

The main problem is that while the heavens may bless Southern California with its famous temperate weather, the powers that be do not grace the area with an abundance of natural rainfall—or at least enough to supply the millions that call the region home. To overcome this water deficit, engineers, entrepreneurs, and politicians over the decades have turned to distant sources for the needed agua fresca.

Since the turn of the 20th century, some of the most transformative engineering feats in American history have been focused on providing the arteries to pump this clear lifeblood hundreds of miles to Southern California.

Unfortunately, the story of Southern California’s water supply is also a story of a job done perhaps too well. The success of agencies like the Metropolitan Water District (WMD) in providing free-flowing imported water to the region has inadvertently anesthetized many Southern California residents to the reality of how precious, and perhaps fleeting, each drop of water is to the region.

Despite numerous past cycles of regional drought reminding us of the fragility of this engineered miracle, water for many in Southern California has simply become an ubiquitous presumption. Now, as California moves into its third straight year of official drought, state and local officials are set to change much of that attitude permanently.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently declared a state of emergency due to the drought, warning that it could result in more than $3 billion in statewide economic losses. More ominously, the Governor said he was considering mandatory statewide water rationing.

In Southern California, where MWD provides nearly all of the water imported into the region, the agency is set to introduce permanent caps on the amount of water each city and water agency can receive — go over the allocated amount and the cost of the imported water, which in some cities makes up nearly all of their water supply, triples.

The moves in Sacramento and by MWD have left most cities struggling for a response.

“Our current water supply conditions should be a catalyst for Southern California water supply managers to immediately increase action on extraordinary conservation measures, particularly prohibiting certain outdoor uses of water,” said John Allen, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners.

“Southern California water suppliers should be practicing and preparing for the worst; hope is not an adequate strategy,” said Allen.

And Long Beach is practicing what it preaches.

In an aggressive outreach plan enacted nearly two years ago, the Long Beach Water Department (LBWD) asked customers in the city to conserve water. In addition, the City prohibited certain types of outdoor water usage deemed egregiously wasteful, including severe restrictions on times and amounts of landscape watering and the use of potable water for washing down public and residential areas. Long Beach citizens answered the call, setting monthly records since the outreach began for decreases in water usage.

According to the LBWD, residents have already reduced the amount of water used in the city to a point where the amount of purchased MWD water is at or below the agency’s impending cap for the city. Long Beach water usage in January was 19.3 percent below the 10-year historical average, a new monthly record despite 2009 having the third hottest January on record in Los Angeles County.

This is good news for the city because MWD water represents the largest single annual expenditure of the LBWD. The ramifications of not meeting the MWD caps could be devastating for Long Beach, with any additional penalties imposed by MWD seriously impacting the department’s budget.

Long Beach currently receives about 40 percent of its water from MWD, another 40 percent from 26 wells throughout the city, about 15 percent from conservation and the remaining slice of the water supply pie comes from alternate sources such as desalination and recycled water.

The conservation outreach, though, is just another part of a longterm progressive plan by the LBWD to lower the city’s dependence on imported water. The plan calls for the city, within the next six years, to significantly increase the amount of water conserved, the amount recycled and the amount from alternative sources to a point where imported water is only 30 percent of the city’s total supply.

In many cases, Long Beach is already at the forefront of water technology.

In 2005, and in conjunction with federal and regional agencies, the city launched a major seawater desalination program. Utilizing what is known as the “Long Beach” method, the 300,000 gallon-per-day facility in East Long Beach is the largest seawater desalination research and development facility of its kind in the United States. The facility has already shown that the “Long Beach” method is 20 percent to 30 percent more energy efficient than any known desalination process. The city’s long-term plan calls for desalination to generate up to 10 percent of the city’s total water supply by 2015.

Long Beach is also moving forward on a water storage plan that will allow imported water purchased at cheaper rates in wet years to be stored in wells for use during dry years. The four new storage wells, when completed, will have the potential to “bank” 4.2 billion gallons of water for later use.

The city is also in the midst of one of the most aggressive recycled water system expansions in Southern California. The goal of the expansion is to double the amount of reclaimed water used to 12 percent of the city’s total water demand.

However, while the city is in good shape for the impending MWD caps, the LBWD is urging citizens to go even further in their conservation efforts — especially when it comes to the use of water outside the home.

“Conservation is no longer optional,” said Long Beach City Council member Suja Lowenthal, who represents Long Beach on the Metropolitan Water Board. “Conservation must and will be considered part of the overall water portfolio for Long Beach. It’s as important as our efforts to secure imported water or develop sustainable desalination.”

Lowenthal adds that conservation on the level needed will require a behavioral shift in the attitudes of residents — a shift much along the lines of how people have rapidly adopted energy saving appliances and light fixtures inside their homes.

“The average home will need to reduce their outdoor water use through smart irrigation systems, drought tolerant landscaping and reduced grass area,” said Lowenthal.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, between 35 percent and 50 percent of an average single-family home’s water usage is for landscape watering. The LBWD considers many of these activities as the low-hanging fruit of water conservation.

To help residents, the LBWD offers extensive information on its website on numerous conservation options. The city offers detailed information about landscaping with native drought-resistant, yet still attractive, plants. Information is available about rebates for replacing toilets, washing machines, sprinklers and irrigation controllers with more efficient models. The site also features links to websites that allow residents to audit their water usage and investigate water saving opportunities.

The message of the LBWD is that even though the city is well-placed due to its past efforts, now is not the time for complacency by residents.

Visit lbwater.org for more information on local water conservation.