2:00pm | The Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners elected a new President earlier this week, as CSULB geography professor Dr. Suzanne Dallman will guide the board for the next year after a unanimous election.
Each member of the five-person board serves a five-year term, and the President serves one year. Dr. Dallman was appointed to the board by Mayor Bob Foster in 2008 and replaces outgoing President Paul Blanco.
“As someone who lives and works in the City of Long Beach, I truly appreciate the opportunity to serve my fellow residents over the course of the next year as President of the Board of Water Commissioners,” Dr. Dallman said in a statement.
She will lead a board that oversees all water works in Long Beach and is also responsible for sanitary sewage disposal. The board also has the ability to purchase or sell properties and operate or construct its facilities.
Dr. Dallman inherits a department that is still seen as a regional leader in the effort to encourage conservation, as California is entering the fourth year of a major drought that has put the future of the public water supply in jeopardy. Due to diminished rainfall and increased use of water, reservoirs have dried and Southern California was in serious trouble. Last November was the driest ever recorded, with absolutely no rainfall. Check out this 2009 story about my trip following our water supply from the Hoover Dam back to Long Beach and how things turned for the worse. Those fears have eased somewhat after recent improvement in rain levels, but the threat remains and the Long Beach Water Department is widely credited with doing the most – compared to other local and regional water departments – to encourage conservation among its users.
Among their many efforts to encourage water conservation, the department offered cash incentives for residents interested in replacing their grass lawns with a drought-tolerant native landscape, like the one profiled in this lbpost.com article in 2009 (photo at right). There could be a similar program coming soon for local businesses, as well. The department also limited the days and hours that residents can water their lawns and offered rewards to people who turned in water wasters. The result? Long Beach shattered several ten-year-old consumption records and set an example that other Southern California agencies have been quick to adopt.
The new President of the board comes fully equipped for the challenge. Dr. Dallman is a professor of both Geography and Environmental Science & Policy, and specializes in California water issues. Her research focuses on environmental geography with an emphasis on resource management and sustainability. Dr. Dallman also served as the Technical Director of the non-profit Los Angeles & San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council before coming to the board.
Visit this page for more information on the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners.