Long Beach Water Department Policies, Inaction Give Known Violators Impunity

By Greggory Moore, Columnist

For the better part of a decade, during the region’s worst drought in 1,200 years, the City of Long Beach took literally no punitive action against any of the thousands of Long Beach Water Department customers reported for water-use violations each year — a streak of non-action that continued even after city, county, and state lawmakers tightened irrigation restrictions and the department solicited the general public for reports of violations.

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 to keep better track of which customers are consistently alleged to violate pertinent 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 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 dozens.

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” and that “include[s] a list of water saving tips,” the department will not issue an official warning letter — the first required step toward the possible issuance of a fine or water shut-off — unless staff directly witnesses a violation. 

Does that mean, for example, that if the department received 100 videos from 100 different people documenting 100 separate 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 single location, at least sometimes the department chooses not 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 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 100 Oceangate  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 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 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 irrigated the prior Friday and the water still had not evaporated as of Monday morning — a physical impossibility, considering that there was 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. 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 (though no copy exists: according to Wang, the department does not keep copies). To date, 100 Oceangate has never received a fine, although Random Lengths News has documented violations on multiple occasions since September. 

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, under current Long Beach Water policies and practices, even the most chronic violators may be able to flaunt City of Long Beach water-use prohibitions with impunity, regardless of who sees them do it.