L.A. Has $2B Plan To Reuse All Of Its Wastewater

The mayor of Los Angeles wants to position his city at the forefront of the sustainable wastewater treatment movement. But getting it there will be no easy task.

“Mayor Eric Garcetti has a new goal for Los Angeles; recycling 100 percent of our wastewater — but it’ll take 16 years and $2 billion to do it,” reported LAist. “How do sanitation officials plan to make that happen? The biggest piece of the puzzle involves upgrading the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant, the largest such facility in the western United States.”

The plan processes 260 MGD and currently recycles only a quarter of that, per the report. Garcetti’s plan is primarily focused on increasing that recycling rate all the way up to 100 percent.

“The city’s Bureau of Sanitation (BOS) estimates the improvements at the Hyperion plant will cost $2 billion to reach the mayor’s goal by 2035,” per LAist. “City officials said they’re working with Sacramento to secure funds, which they expect to be freed up by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s one-tunnel solution to the delta water project.”

Garcetti noted that the state might provide all of the money to pay for the project and that if L.A. recycled more wastewater, they could sell that drinking water to neighboring cities like El Segundo and West Hollywood.

The move to 100 percent recycled wastewater could also save L.A. the money it spends on importing drinking water.

“With the City committing to 100% recycled water at all four treatment facilities by 2035, LADWP [the L.A. Department of Water and Power] will be able to reliably source up to 70 percent of its water sustainably and locally instead of depending on costly imported water,” LADWP’s general manager, David H. Wright, said in a statement from the mayor’s office. “Today’s announcement is nothing short of a game changer when it comes to securing LA’s water future.”

Specifically, the recycled wastewater treatment plan would see the city’s treatment plants remove contaminants until the wastewater is close to drinking water quality, then it would be extracted and treated again at a groundwater facility before it enters the distribution system.

Boosting the city’s confidence that this goal is attainable is the fact that its other wastewater treatment plants already recycle 100 percent of influent.

“The Hyperion Plant is one of the L.A.’s four water treatment facilities,” according to LAist. “The other three — L.A. Glendale, Tillman and Terminal Island — are already at 100 percent recycled water capacity. City officials are confident they can do the same with Hyperion.”

To read more about advances in recycled wastewater, visit Water Online’s Water Reuse Solutions Center.