All photos by Kent McIntosh, LACSD
CONFERENCE PHOTOS
FRIDAY NIGHT CWEA BANQUET
“A Night In New Orleans”
(photos by Miluska Propersi, RMC Water and Environment)
(our thanks to LABS photographer Kent McIntosh, LACSD)
(photos by Nicole You, E2 Consulting Engineers Inc.)
(Photos by Kent McKintosh, LACSD)
On Nov 10th 45 members of LABS participated in a unique, behind the scenes tour of the rapidly expanding Space X manufacturing facility in Hawthorne. The event was LABS’ annual Industrial Waste tour and arranged by members of the Los Angeles County Sanitations Districts’ Industrial Waste Section.
Founded just a few years ago by Elon Musk, the entrepeanuer behind PayPal and Tesla electric cars, Space X is working on designing and building the next generation of rockets that will take people and supplies to the international space station, whicle also cutting the cost of building, launching and recovering the rockets. The company is building new rockets in response to competitions created by NASA to fund the next generate of private rocket launching companies.
(photos by Alec Mackie, JWCE)
Vander Lans AWTF
Photos by Kent McIntosh, LACSD and Miluska Propersi, RMC Water & Environment
On Saturday May 14th about 100 high school students participated in the Tech Day outreach fair hosted by the Los Angeles African American Engineers and Professional Employees Association. The event was held inside the beautiful new Galen Center at USC.
LABS helped sponsor the event and hosted a table with mock demonstrations of the wastewater treatment process. LABS Director Basil Hewitt, President Wendy Wert and VP Alec Mackie described the wastewater treatment process to students, the importance of taking care of water and all the great careers available in the wastewater industry.
The students showed they knew their stuff. Some asked about the UV disinfection process – a newer technology in the water and wastewater industry. Several already knew 75% of the Earth’s surface is water andless than 1% is available for drinking water, so it’s important to use water wisely. Others were facsinated by the microscope and watching the microorganisms turn pollution into cleaner water.
The wastewater industry will need plenty of new treatment plant operators, engineers and managers in the coming years. A great resource for students and young professionals interested in a water/wastewater career is WEF’s new website www.WorkForWater.org.
Thanks to Los Angeles African American Engineers and Professional Employees Association for organizing yet another fantastic tech day (they’ve been hosting these events for over 10 years) and LABS looks forward to next year’s student outreach event.
Photographs by Amanda Schmidt, RMC
Photographs by Miluska Propersi, RMC
Photographs by Miluska Propersi, RMC.
A sunset cruise around the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors hosted by LABS Past President Hala Titus of Black & Veatch.
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…
