Long Beach Water Department Policies, Inaction Give Known Violators Impunity

For the better part of a decade, during the region’s worst drought in 1,200 years, the City of Long Beach failed to take any punitive action for water waste, even after tightening water-use restrictions and soliciting the general public for reports of violations, which came in by the hundreds each month.

When questioned last year, Dean Wang, the Long Beach Water Department’s manager of water resources, told Random Lengths News that because of staffing shortages and poor record-keeping the department may not have been sufficiently diligent in taking action against the worst chronic offenders; and that the department was rejiggering its database so as to keep better track of which customers are consistently alleged to be in violation of waste-use regulations. “When there’s a drought and the need for these rules,” Wang said, “we will definitely be stepping up that enforcement.”

But in the wake of a single relatively rainy year, Long Beach Water has gone in the other direction, loosening restrictions while at the same time becoming less transparent than formerly regarding water-use complaints, denying the public the opportunity to get a sense of how many customers appear to be chronic violators. 

In response to a 2023 request for records of water-use complaints, Random Lengths News ascertained that the Long Beach Water Department had hundreds of customers who between May 15 and October 15, 2022 were regularly accused of numerous water-use violations, in some cases upwards of 20 separate occasions.

This year, in response to a request seeking the same records for May–December 2023, Long Beach Water redacted all 736 reported addresses of over 2,000 alleged violations, making it nearly impossible to ascertain whether any property owner is alleged to be guilty of a single violation or a hundred.

But under current policy it almost doesn’t matter. Although in response to alleged violations Long Beach Water may send a letter “to advise you of water-use restrictions” which “include[s] a list of water saving tips,” the department will not issue an official warning letter — the first required step to possibly issuing a fine of effecting water shut-off — unless staff directly witnesses a violation. 

Does that mean, for example, that if the department received 100 videos from from 100 different people documenting violations at a single address within a single month, this would be insufficient for the department to issue a warning letter? “Correct,” Wang says.

But even when staff does witness repeated violations at a location, at least sometimes the department refuses to act. A case in point is 100 Oceangate, a commercial customer whose chronic water-use violations Random Lengths News has independently verified and regularly reported to the Long Beach Water— in each case with video evidence —for over two years. Wang claims the department spent “many hours over the past year in-person at [the address in question] to try and observe the irrigation system running on the wrong days/times or causing excessive runoff” but “did not witness those violations occurring during our numerous in-person inspections.” Wang says no records were kept of this field time beyond “[p]hotographs taken during inspections.”

But contrary to Wang’s claim, those photographs confirm that on July 31, 2023 and then again on August 9 and September 25, Long Beach Water staff photographed evidence of various violations, including watering landscape on prohibited days/times and “watering landscape or using water that results in runoff that flows onto neighboring properties, sidewalks […] roadways, parking lots or structures.”

Wang justifies department inaction in the wake of the July 31 violations by calling the evidence “circumstantial,” saying “A violation was not actively occurring when our staff was present. It would be speculative to assume to when an actual violation occurred.” However, because the photographs, taken on a Monday, documented standing water at the bottom of planters and runoff into the gutter, the only way a violation did not occur was if the flora had been watered the prior Friday and the water had not evaporated as of Monday morning — a physical impossibility, considering that there no rainfall that weekend and daytime highs in the 80s each day.

Ten days later, staff caught 100 Oceangate in the act of committing the same violations, yet the department still chose not to issue a warning letter. It was only the following month, when staff caught 100 Oceangate committing the same violations yet again that Wang says a warning letter was finally sent. 

To date, 100 Oceangate has never received a fine, although Random Lengths News has documented violations on multiple occasions since September. (Random Lengths News cannot confirm that 100 Oceangate has ever been sent a warning letter: Wang says the department does not keep copies.)

Because of unusually high rainfall totals last year, California has emerged from its three driest years in recorded history. But as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) notes, “Drought in California and Nevada is a common occurrence that can last for multiple years.” And almost 50% of the Colorado River Basin — which supplies Southern California with over 30% of our water — remains either in drought or “abnormally dry.” 

Nonetheless, until Long Beach Water changes its policies and practices, apparently even the most chronic violators can flaunt City of Long Beach water-use prohibitions with impunity, regardless of who sees them do it.