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LIGHTS...CAMERA...WATER SAVINGS: Web-based video by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California provides consumers hands-on conservation tips for inside, outside their homes

Available for viewing at the district's www.mwdh2o.com Web site as well as www.bewaterwise.com-another site hosted by Metropolitan and the Family of Southern California Water Agencies-the nearly two-minute-long video provides consumers the top 10 water-saving tips for both inside and outside the home.

"With many communities in Southern California and throughout the rest of the state requiring or requesting water cutbacks from residents and businesses, this video is especially timely," said Metropolitan General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger.

Southern California continues to face significant water supply challenges, Kightlinger said. Heading into 2010, Metropolitan's main sources of imported supplies, particularly deliveries from Northern California through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, remain hindered by statewide drought and the Delta's deteriorating environmental conditions.

"In the past, we relied on wet winters to replenish our water reserves. During droughts, when new supplies were scarce, the region could draw on the reserves to help cushion the impacts. In a wet-or-dry state like California, capitalizing on a big winter was a key to reliability," Kightlinger said.

"Today, winter storms don't translate into nearly the improvement in California's water supply picture because of the current unprecedented restrictions in the Delta," he added. "In fact, the state faces perpetual water shortages for millions of acres of agriculture and 25 million Californians, from the Bay Area to Southern California."

Kightlinger noted that the California Legislature last November approved a package of bills that provide a clear path for a Delta solution to take shape through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. The BDCP will create a combination of ecosystem and water system improvements that are intended to help with the Delta ecosystem's recovery and create a new supply conveyance system that minimizes conflicts with migrating fish species.

"The BDCP, however, will take a number of years to permit and implement," Kightlinger acknowledged. "In the interim, conservation is our best tool to deal with this Delta challenge."

The video offers viewers easy-to-follow, how-to instructions to improve water-use efficiency. For example, the video notes that consumers can save up to 800 gallons of water a week by reducing outdoor watering from five to two days a week.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving 19 million people in six counties. The district imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage and other resource-management programs.

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Bob Muir, (213) 217-6930; (213) 324-5213, mobile
Armando Acuña, (213) 217-6853, (530) 574-3111, mobile