Desperate Los Angeles Looks To Stormwater For Relief

Desperation has California cities seeking water in strange places.

The growing need for water in Los Angeles has the city eyeing the L.A. River for stormwater control projects, despite that it’s a mere “trickle” compared to other water sources, KCET recently reported.

Lawmakers and water agencies want to “use the 51-mile rivers' function as a flood control channel to their advantage by converting it to a center for stormwater capture, one revitalization project at a time,” the report said.

In wetter years, policymakers did not consider the river. “Although drier days may see river water at a trickle, it carries more than 98 million gallons a day — water wasted as it drains out to the Pacific and during times of peak flow, the river carries more than 118 billion gallons a day — enough water to supply 800,000 homes in a year,” the report said.

As the state enters its fifth year of drought — with 90 percent of the area experiencing severe drought and 45 percent, including Los Angeles, experiencing “exceptional drought” — even this “trickle” is attractive. “Los Angeles currently imports 85 percent of its water and after years of reluctance to wean itself off imported water sources, the city is being forced to find innovative ways to provide its own water,” the report said.

So what kind of projects are policymakers envisioning for the Los Angeles River?

“River projects have provided new opportunities for conservation through low-impact development projects — small-scale natural drainage features designed to slow, clean, infiltrate and capture stormwater and urban runoff,” the report said. “With a number of new parks, habitat restoration projects and developments outlined in river revitalization plans throughout the 51-miles of the river, one could look at the potential of the river as being a 51-mile center for environmentally beneficial water conservation and reclamation projects.”

A report by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) two years ago encouraged the city to stop allowing river water to be lost to the Pacific, according to the Examiner.com:

Since 2013, the LADWP has been working on a master plan to implement "stormwater capture projects that decrease the amount of runoff lost to the Pacific Ocean," according to the LADWP report released in June 2015. "The more a city or town can diversify its water portfolio with storm runoff or gray water, the more easily it will be able to weather a serious drought, according to the study released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. "Gray water and stormwater can help in the drought, but risk needs to be studied, researchers say."

To keep up with latest drought stories, visit Water Online’s Water Scarcity Solutions Center.