Long Beach Water Dept. Pledges Better Enforcement After Years of Issuing No Fines to Violators Despite Historic Drought

Despite receiving hundreds of complaints per month during the region’s worst drought in 1,200 years, the City of Long Beach did not issue any fines for water misuse in 2022 — or several years prior — even though dozens of properties consistently received multiple allegations every month. Most such cases received little to no investigation, and often no records were kept of whatever follow-up action there may have been. 

In response to 2022’s statewide water conservation emergency regulations, Long Beach tightened existing water-use regulations, limiting outdoor irrigation to two days per week between 4 p.m. and 9 a.m. The department also actively encouraged residents to report violations.

And report violations they did. From May through October 2022, the City received over 3,000 reports of water-use violations. But not in a single case did the City impose a fine or take any sort of disciplinary action, even when informed of multiple and ongoing violations at a single location and provided with supporting video evidence.

When initially interviewed for this story, both Board of Water Commissioners General Manager Chris Gardner and Manager of Water Resources Dean Wang stated that the Water Department was told by the City Attorney’s Office that fines could be issued only if a Water Department employee actually witnessed the violation.

But Deputy City Attorney Rich Anthony says this is not his office’s position, and City records back him up. In response to a Public Records Act request for all records concerning City policies vis-à-vis the imposition of fines for violating water-use restrictions, the only documents the City produced concern a 2016 revision of Rules & Regulations pertaining to “Increased enforcement of Prohibited Uses of Water.” In a short series of July 2016 memos circulating between Gardner, Wang, Anthony, and then-Director of Planning & Conservation Matthew Lyons, Lyons writes of the Board of Water Commissioners having recently “amended the reso[lution] to require additional enforcement of the Prohibited Uses of Water (PUoW).” To this end, Lyons reviews an updated draft of the Rules & Regulations “[e]asing the standard of proof that a violation has taken place,” including “no longer requir[ing] staff to take video or photographic images of violations,” as well as “accept[ing] AMI [i.e., advanced metering infrastructure] data as proof of a violation taking place. We have been doing this for the purpose of Warning Letters; now we will do it for issuing PUoW Charges as well.” 

Ten days later, the Board was presented with what is identified as Part 19 of the Long Beach Water Department Rules and Regulations (subtitle: WATER CONSERVATION AND WATER SHORTAGE SUPPLY PLAN), which outlines what must be included (“at a minimum”) in both Warning Letters and Notices of Violations (NoV), including “An order to the Customer to correct the violation no later than the specified correction date” and a PUoW Charge schedule, with fines ranging from $75 for a first violation during a Stage 2 shortage (which Long Beach officially entered on June 1) to $900 for a fourth and subsequent offense. 

But these guidelines have not been followed. Warning letters sent to alleged violators state only that “We have been informed that there may be an opportunity to conserve water at [customer address],” a reminder of water-use restrictions in place, and “a list of water saving tips” [sic]. And according to Wang, the department had not issued a single fine since 2016. 

Additionally, Wang admitted that prior to RLn’s investigation, the Water Department kept few records of follow-up actions on persistent violations. Although Wang noted that some alleged violators received a follow-up phone call if subsequent complaints were received, these calls were rarely logged. 

Moreover, prior to RLn’s PRA request Wang says the department did not organize its records by address and so generally did not keep track of when a single customer was consistently receiving multiple violations month over month. Rather, each complaint was recorded as a new case number, and case numbers were not grouped by address. For example, 310 N. Winnipeg was assigned 22 separate case numbers between June–September 2022, rather than being codified as a single case with 22 separate complaints.

Wang notes that some complaints are baseless — e.g., neighbors harassing neighbors — while many which may be legitimate are difficult to verify, such as whether confirmed water use on a day disallowed for landscape watering was in fact used for that purpose. He also says that the department’s priority is “outreach and education” — and that many violators are simply unaware of the regulations and correct the violation as soon as they receive a letter from the department.

But Wang concedes that because of staffing shortages and poor record-keeping, the department has not been as diligent as perhaps it should have been with fining the worst chronic offenders. 

To that end, Wang says that since RLn began making inquiries for this story (it’s worth noting that Wang made himself readily available to discuss these issues at length), the department has rejiggered its database so as to keep better track of which customers are consistently alleged to be in violation of waste-use regulations, as well as a more complete record of the department’s follow-up actions. And he says although the primary goal is always to educate, fines — like one that has been issued in 2023, breaking the department’s seven-year streak — can be expected in the future for persistent offenders.

“Your continued focus on this has helped us to be better prepared to be able to do that,” Wang says. “[…] When there’s a drought and the need for these rules, we will definitely be stepping up that enforcement.”