L.A.’s Aggressive Wastewater Recycling Plan Would Supply Up to One-Third of City’s Water by 2035

Industry News / Infrastructure

March 4, 2019

L.A.’s Aggressive Wastewater Recycling Plan Would Supply Up to One-Third of City’s Water by 2035

Los Angeles has set a goal of recycling all of the city’s treated wastewater into drinkable water by 2035.

If successful, the treated wastewater would supply as much as one third of the city’s clean water; currently recycled water accounts for only 2 percent.

“It is really a game-changer,” said Richard Harasick of the L.A. Department of Water and Power.

The city wants to upgrade the treatment technology at the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant, which currently treats 81 percent of the city’s sewage. The purified water would be pumped inland through a 15-mile pipe and injected it into the aquifers beneath the L.A. Basin. Currently, the Hyperion plant discharges about 190 million gallons a day of

treated water through a five-mile outfall pipe into the Santa Monica Bay.

The project, which is estimated to cost $8 billion, would be funded through bonds, grants, and low-interest government loans.

 

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