ADVISORY/Long Beach Seawater Desalination Research and Development Facility Groundbreaking Ceremony.

News Editors

ADVISORY...for Tuesday (Nov. 11)

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

WHAT:  Long Beach Seawater Desalination Research and Development
       Facility Groundbreaking Ceremony

WHERE: Los Angeles Department of Water & Power -- Haynes Generation
       Station, 6801 East 2nd Street, (east of Pacific Coast Hwy.),
       Long Beach, CA.

WHEN:  Tuesday, November 11, 2003, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

WHO:   Hon. John Keys, Commissioner, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
       Hon. Dana Rohrabacher, U.S. House of Representatives
       Hon. Juanita Millender-McDonald, U.S. House of Representatives
       Dr. Stephen Horn, Fmr. Member, U.S. House of Representatives
       Hon. Beverly O'Neill, Mayor, City of Long Beach
       Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners
       Los Angeles Department of Water & Power Commissioners
       Helen Hansen, Chair, Metropolitan Water District of Southern
        California Desalination Committee

DESCRIPTION OF EVENT:

       Nearly two-hundred Federal, State and local officials will be
       present as the Long Beach Water Department, Los Angeles
       Department of Water and Power and the United States Bureau of
       Reclamation kickoff construction of the Long Beach Seawater
       Desalination Research and Development Facility, the largest
       Federally Authorized project of its kind in the United States.

       With this temporary facility, Long Beach, Los Angeles and the
       Federal government will work toward making seawater
       desalination more cost-effective and environmentally sound
       through a groundbreaking research and development partnership.
       The research and development facility will utilize a
       breakthrough membrane technology process developed by the Long
       Beach Water Department, which independent pilot scale tests
       have shown to be 20 to 30 percent more energy efficient than
       more widely used desalination methods.

       The findings made at this facility will assist the California
       Coastal Commission, the California State Legislature and the
       United States Congress in finalizing its own policies, both
       energy and environmental, relating to the construction and
       operation of seawater desalination facilities.

       The Federal government will pay 50 percent of the project's
       total cost.

RSVP CONTACT:  Melissa Keyes, Special Events Coordinator
               562-570-2309 Office
               562-708-1592 Cellular