On August 19, the LABS Young Professionals Committee hosted a tour of the San Jose Creek Water Reclamation Plant (SJC-WRP), owned and operated by the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County.
Locally based professional photographer Brian Raimondi takes environmental related pictures, including a long-term project shooting at the City of Los Angeles’ Bureau of Sanitation Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant. In beautiful black and white as well. His first view of the plant was on a public tour. “‘The tour was excellent and very informative. As you can imagine, the facility is an interesting backdrop for photographing,” Brian said.
View more of Brian’s photos at www.brianraimond.com.
Photos are copyrighted, used with permission.
Click image for a larger view…
Old fashioned climber screens take out rags and trash at the headworks before material can cause problems inside the treatment plant as well as prevent trash from entering the Pacific Ocean.
Truck load-out monitoring office. Biosolids are hauled to the City's recycling farm called Green Acres.
Sludge digester piping
Looking over Hyperion's rose garden and final clarifiers towards the LA DWP's Scattergood Power Plant.Piping network between digesters.
Hyperion's egg-shaped digesters.
There was a water main break Monday morning in an 8″ pipeline connection to a larger 54″ line sending a tall geyser rising into the air. Some reporters quickly dubbed it “Old Faithful of the Valley.” The LADWP quickly closed off the line.
The agency describes it as a purple pipe carrying recycled water. The water is required to meet California Title 22 water quality standards for health and safety but is not used for drinking water. No one was hurt.
It’s likely the recycled water is from the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant just across the 405-freeway. The facility recycles roughly 26-million gallons every day.
Cheers West Basin!
On Wednesday Sept. 9th over 60 professionals from LABS and SARBS took a guided tour of the West Basin Municipal Water District’s water recycling facility in El Segundo.
West Basin’s Manager of Public & Gov’t Affairs Ron Wildermuth gave an enlightening talk on SoCal’s dire water situation and what West Basin is doing to secure more local supplies for their customers. Their plan, called Water Reliability 2020 involves several different projects to diversive the region’s water supplies and move away from dependence on expensive and dwindling imported supplies. One of West Basin’s main messages is – spread the word about water efficiency in your community, Southern California needs public support for clean water projects now more than ever.
Public tours of the Edward C. Little Water Reclamation Facility are offered the second Saturday of each month at 9:30am – it is a fantastic tour and well worth taking. Contact info is on West Basin’s website at www.westbasin.com.
An LA City fire truck stuck in a sink hole caused by a broken 6" drinking water pipeline. The break follows the much larger Studio City water main break that occured Saturday night. (Credit: Flickr, Mick_O, cc)
With five LA-DWP drinking water pipelines bursting within a few miles of one another within the last ten days some Angelenos are starting to wonder what’s up with the pipes down below. According to an LA Times article, DWP engineers are also wondering why the number of leaks overall are down – but major blowouts (shooting out the streets type stuff) are way up.
And that could be a good thing if people pay more attention to the infrastructure that surrounds them and makes life better. In Los Angeles and in cities across the nation infrastructure is wearing out and reaching the end of its useful life. The large 62″ LADWP pipeline which failed Saturday night is reported to be nearly 100-years old.
Infrastructure falling apart isn’t just an LA problem. The EPA, WEF, CBO, WIN, ASCE and others have been warning for years about a growing investment gap in America’s water and wastewater infrastructure. The EPA says communities are under-investing by $10 to $20-billion than they should each year to replace old drinking water and wastewater pipes, as well as treatment plants. That gap will grow to $220-billion over the next twenty years the EPA reports.
Tell us below in a comment what Los Angeles should do about our crumbling water and wastewater infrastructure.
Here’s a good overview from CBS News about the nation’s failing infrastructure…
The CWEA Ops Challenge winners - LA Wrecking Crew (l-r): Mario Gomez, Alternate; Jesus Garibay; Paul Johnson, Captain; Jeff Valdes; Dale Dollins
Local members and agencies were big winners at the Annual Conference in Palm Springs earlier this year. LABS member and CWEA Past-President Dave Greenwood (LACSD) hosted the awards luncheon – handing out awards to dozens of agencies and individuals.
LABS very own newsletter, Sewer Leaks, was honored as Large Circulation Newsletter of the Year and Editor Wendy Wert (LACSD) received the award. Wendy, a LABS Director, TCC Chair and professional engineer, served as editor over the last three years – never once missing an issue. The editing reigns have now passed to Alice Kuo, also an LACSD engineer.
Thanks to member and sponsor support LABS was able to donate $1,000 to the Kirt Brooks scholarship fund. Past-President Patrick Griffith and former Treasurer Dan Gary presented the oversized check to CWEA during the awards luncheon.
More stories and photos after the jump…
An egret takes flight in the newly restored Bixby Marsh (credit: Sean Hiller, Daily Breeze)
The Daily Breeze has excellent photos of the newly restored and newly opened Bixby Marshlands right next to LACSD’s Joint Water Pollution Control Plant in Carson.
“Protecting the environment is important to the Sanitation Districts and sharing the natural wonders of the marshland with the community is a goal of the district. This became a bigger project than we envisioned at the beginning because we wanted to do it right. I think we did a very good job.” Mary Jacobs, LACSD Civil Engineer, Planning Division
LACSD is looking for community volunteers to help lead tours of the marshland.
Some June photos of the Valencia Water Reclamation Plant (LACSD) with Magic Mountain roller coasters in the background.
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- Valencia WRP with Magic Mountain in the background
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- Valencia WRP with Magic Mountain in the background
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- Valencia WRP with Magic Mountain in the background
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- Valencia WRP with Magic Mountain in the background
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- Valencia WRP with Magic Mountain in the background
Marjorie presents the main door prize to Pat (OCSD) - an XBox 360!!!
By Marjorie Boone,
Southern Regional Safety Conference-Chair
June 4th, 2009, Carson – The Annual Southern Regional Safety Conference (SRSC) hosted by LABS, is the kind of event where CWEA declares “We care for our members” and many, many agencies responded by sending employees – despite the economic times. It was an amazing turnout – attendees traveling from across this great State. We had several people from many different vocations, including operators, collections workers, managers, directors, vendors and so on – who came together to share their dedication for compliance and employee safety.
The 2009 SRSC resoundingly strengthened this traditional safety event by offering a full range of solid technical content. As we talked with attendees, a theme emerged: they overwhelmingly got what they came for – a technical transfer of knowledge and interaction with fellow safety professionals, field personnel and managers with similar issues. Pat Carnahan of the Orange County Sanitation District was our lucky winner that got to take home the X-Box 360 door prize!
Pictures courtesy of Marjorie Boone, SARBS Director JoshuaCasey Corproate Training and Wendy Wert, LABS Director (LACSD).
Click picture for larger view…
Exhibitors:
- CavCom – hearing safety/radios - www.cavcominc.com
- CEC – Gorman-Rupp representative – www.cec-h2o.com
- Haaker Equipment – Vactor trucks – www.haaker.com
- JoshuaCasety – safety training – www.joshuacasey.com
- JWC Environmental – grinders/fine screens – www.jwce.com
- Sancon Engineering – pipeline relining – www.sancon.com
- Sewer Lock – manhole safety/security – www.sewerlock.com
- West Coast Safety Supply – www.westcoastsafetysupply.com
- 2009 Southern Regional Safety Conference
