About Us

Long Beach Utilities employees gathered at lake with city in the background

 

Long Beach Utilities provides three primary utility services to nearly 500,000 residents and businesses, including:  a) the unfailing delivery of high quality, delicious drinking water, b) the safe delivery of natural gas (including to Signal Hill), and c) reliable sewer services.  The City has successfully provided these three utility services to our community for 100 years or more. 

These utility services are provided via a vast network of approximately 5,000 miles of underground pipeline.  These services are provided 24/7 due to the dedication professionalism of 500 utility employees who handle pipeline maintenance and construction, field customer service, leak detection, engineering, water quality testing, water treatment, sewer inspection, accounting, call center activities, utility billing, meter reading, emergency response, and many other services. 

In November 2022, the voters of Long Beach approved a change to the City’s charter to create the Public Utilities Department, consolidating the City’s water, natural gas, and sewer services into one department. This consolidation improves utility customer service, reduces impacts to streets through better coordination of pipeline repairs, and achieves cost savings through economies of scale and efficiencies. 

Prior to the charter change, water and sewer utilities were provided by the Long Beach Water Department and natural gas services by the Long Beach Gas Department (as well as more recently through the City’s Department of Energy Resources). 

With the consolidation, the three utilities are now under the Long Beach Public Utilities Department, or Long Beach Utilities.  Oversight of the City’s water, natural gas, and sewer operations is provided by the independent Board of Utilities Commissioners (formerly the Board of Water Commissioners) and managed by the General Manager who reports directly to the Board.  

We take our commitment to our community’s health and quality of life seriously. We are dedicated to hard work, quality customer service, professional expertise to make smart infrastructure investments that prioritize customer safety and providing our services at reasonable costs to our customers.