Green living: For homeowners, ideas flow in to ease drought
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L.A. County offers residential water rebates
There are a variety of programs to help residents conserve water, including the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Water District’s rain barrel rebate.
The water district offers a $75 rebate when a resident buys a rain barrel, which can be used to collect water and irrigate plants, trees and gardens.
Larry Rich, Long Beach’s sustainability coordinator, said that a 1,000-square-foot roof can shed 600 gallons of water during a storm that produces 1 inch of rain.
The county’s water district also gives rebates for high-efficiency toilets and soil moisture systems,
Visit SocalWaterSmart.com for more information on those rebates.
The Water Replenishment District of Southern California also offers advice on how to conserve water at wrd.org/conservation. The site lists programs, rebates, landscaping tips and factoids such as: “A leaky faucet can waste 1,500 gallons of water per month.”
Editor’s Note: This is the fifth and final story in a series on environmentally friendly, or green, homes in Long Beach.
Beneath dark clouds and driving rain, Larry Rich pulled his parka over his head and pushed on quickly, raising his voice to be heard above the sound of sloshing muck beneath his feet as he treaded over to a concrete shelter and took cover under a corrugated aluminum roof.
As he spoke with a sense of urgency about California’s drought, water from the roof of the building, which houses landscaping tools and stone features, flowed onto the ground and into a handful of rain barrels designed to catch precipitation to be used for irrigating plants and trees.
Even in the face of the powerful winter storm that hit the state last week, Rich wasn’t hesitant to share his message about saving money and doing one’s part for the environment.
He shrugged off the irony of delivering such a message in driving rain because it seems lately that people are starting to get his point that water conservation is important.
Since Gov. Jerry Brown officially declared California in a drought in January, Rich, Long Beach’s sustainability coordinator, has been hearing from more homeowners interested in water conservation.
“We saw an uptick in people being interested in rain barrels,” Rich said.
Rich could be fielding even more calls from Long Beach residents following Brown’s highly publicized signing of legislation earlier this week to assist drought-affected communities and provide funding to make better use of local water supplies.
Although some believe that the drought will pass and water in the future will be plentiful, others such as Rich fear that climate change could bring abouta “new norm” for California.
Such a change could bring more drought conditions to the Western U.S., which is currently in a three-year period of severe drought, and stronger storms to much the rest of the nation, such as the East Coast’s current “polar vortex” phenomenon.
Regardless of whether people are climate change believers or naysayers, the region always has been a place with moderate rainfall in the winter and almost no precipitation in the summer, Rich noted.
It’s Rich’s practice to keep the drought in mind at all times and plan for the long term – and he hopes Brown’s declaration will continue to help make people aware that they live in a region without a lot of rainfall.
“For us, it’s always a drought,” Rich said. “We’re in this for the long haul in terms of greening our city and society.”
Rich was talking about the importance of water conservation at Willow Springs Park, a 47-acre, city-owned property with a master plan to gradually restore habitat to California native plants and provide enhanced public access and amenities.
He treats the park like it’s a microcosm of the city. As he walked around the park, he spoke enthusiastically about what homeowners can do to conserve water.
Besides helping being more environmentally conscious, there are real dollar incentives for making homes more green and water-efficient – and despite the dark clouds that have recently produced some much-needed precipitation, there is still one of the worst droughts in California history to consider, Rich said.
Rich, who has been the sustainability coordinator since 2008, when the city’s Office of Sustainability was formed, can rattle off a long list of incentives offered by the city and the county, some of which have come and gone.
The Laundry to Landscape program, also known as the gray water pilot program, enabled residents to use their washing machines to provide water for landscapes. The program was started in 2011 and since has ended.
The city conducted 33 gray water installations. The program had mixed results, but it taught Rich and his staff a great deal, he said.
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