Presenter:  Mr. Steve Slaten is the Remedial Project Manager for NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.  As Project Manager, Steve is responsible for the cleanup resulting from past waste disposal practices at the JPL site which have impacted the area’s drinking water aquifer.  He has dedicated his career to cleanup issues and used his skills in developing cooperative partnerships with regulatory agencies, local governments and public stakeholders. His extensive background in environmental cleanup activities includes experience at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.  At this LABS Past President Event, Steve will present JPL’s new Flight Projects Building project, Groundwater Cleanup project and overall sustainability and water consumption reduction efforts.

Saturday June 9th at 11:30 a.m.

Los Gringos Locos Restaurant

464 Foothill Blvd, La Canada, CA 91011

Event Dining Room - Fajita Bar

Member: $20, Non-Member: $25, Students: $10

RSVP to Alec Mackie at alecm@JWCE.com

See Flyer for more info.

Thursday May 24, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.

Swiss Park Banquet Center

1905 Workman Mill Rd. Whittier, CA 90601

Buffet

Members $35; Non-Members $40; $20 Students

RSVP to labsofcwea@gmail.com

Flyer

The LA Basin’s water situation is looking grim – aging infrastructure, tighter regulations, rising energy costs, falling municipal budgets, pumping restrictions in the Sacramento Delta and a drought along the Colorado River. It all adds up less water for LA.

Despite all the challenges there are glimmers of hope, according to speakers at LABS’ World Water Day LA Seminar held March 22 at the LA Chamber of Commerce. LA’s water future actually looks pretty bright if we recycle more water, capture more rainwater and rethink how cities work with water.

LABS’ Past President Hala Titus of Black & Veatch started the seminar by listing cities and the amount they import – from 50% for Long Beach to 60% for Pasadena and 85% for the City of Los Angeles. Ms. Titus then shared an inspiring story about the City of Santa Monica. The City and Black & Veatch recently finished a groundwater filtration plant to remove MTBE and purify the drinking water, and the City cut its water supply needs to only 22% imported. The City wants to get to 100% local supplies by 2020.

James Clark with Black & Veatch gave the first presentation and discussed expanding the region’s purple pipe network – a secondary water system carrying highly purified water from treatment plants to outdoor landscaping, agriculture and industrial applications. He pointed to SoCal’s proud history as a recycled water leader– with LA County Sanitation Districts, City of Los Angeles, West Basin Municipal Water District, Irvine Ranch Water District, and Orange County Water District. A joint project between Orange County Sanitation District and OCWD started Water Factory 21 in 1972, and has grown into the world famous Groundwater Replenishment System.

Mr. Clark called for a shift in thinking – calling wastewater treatment plants “resource recovery” plants. One resource to recover is drinking water. In Orange County, the Groundwater Replenishment System produces 70 million gallons per day of highly purified water which is then sent to basins to percolate into the groundwater aquifer. Started in 2008 the water is cleaner, more reliable and more affordable than imported water supplies.  Imported water costs $731 per acre feet (an acre foot supplies 2 houses for 1 year). GWRS purified water is $750/af and with local and Federal rebates costs only $395/af.

Andy Lipkis, the leader of Tree People called for integrating various local water agencies and bringing the natural environment back into the cities we’ve built. Trees act like giant sponges soaking up and holding water until it’s needed. City infrastructure can do the same thing. By capturing and storing large amounts of rainwater we can use local supplies rather than importing them.

What we need to do is build large water storage projects throughout the LA Basin and retrofit homes, neighborhoods and buildings with rain gardens, massive cisterns, bioswales and infiltration basins. The projects capture more rainwater and also create construction jobs – a double bonus in this down economy said Mr. Lipkis.

Next James Yannotta, newly appointed Manager of the LA Aqueduct, explained how LADWP is moving forward to diversify LA’s water supplies. Currently 85% is imported from the Owens Valley, Sacramento Delta and Colorado River, the balance is made up of local groundwater and recycled water.  Currently water recycling makes up only 1.5%. “We need to dramatically increase that along with other local water supplies such as stormwater capture and groundwater” said Mr. Yannotta.

“Having water supply challenges is not new, our historical climate patterns typically provide more dry years than wet years.  Thus we need to develop local water supplies especially since the recent reduction of imported water to Southern California due to environmental mitigation and legal restrictions. We can’t just go out hundreds of miles away and start importing more water that won’t be available, we need to be a lot more environmentally conscience.”

To extend LA’s supplies further, Mr. Yannotta said LADWP is working with LA residents on five key initiatives such as increasing conservation, expanding the recycled water network (the purple pipe system Mr. Clark described earlier), capturing more stormwater, purifying groundwater and ensuring new LA buildings use low impact development. Eventually, LADWP would like to dramatically increase the City’s local supplies such as recycled water and stormwater.

“Local water supply is much more reliable, particularly during drought years,” said Mr. Yannotta. “Purified recycled water can recharge local aquifers and is the highest quality water available for recharge.”

Mr. Yanotta explained LADWP is working with residents to ensure a comprehensive and transparent planning process – involving hundreds of residents in community meetings. LADWP also formed a dedicated citizens Recycled Water Advisory Group to help the City shape its future recycled water projects.

“New water projects are expensive but over the long term this is cheaper than imported water,” said Mr. Yannotta.  “I can guarantee you we will have recycled water however we cannot guarantee how much imported water will be available.”

Mike Antos from LA’s Council for Watershed Health noted watershed issues are typically local, but not in our case, we are relying on huge man made systems to get water to us. Mike talked about water and wastewater engineering 100 years ago and explained sanitary engineers of the late 1800’s thought of cities like a body – getting clean water in and getting the dirty water out. Over the past 100 years that’s the system we built.

Mr. Antos points to UCLA researcher Stephanie Pincetl who argues we need to convert from Sanitary Cities to Sustainable Cities. The nature of government in cities and how their departments function creates blind spots – they focus on individual water tasks such as importing water or sanitation or flood control, but not on overall watershed management. Mr. Antos argues the LA Basin must continue its shift towards a “mētis” way of thinking – holistic, technically creative, inter-agency projects that generate multiple benefits for all stakeholders.

The Council is working on projects that combine both technical water knowledge and holistic watershed management. In one study the Council looked at the safety of infiltrating stormwater and found no significant trends in root-zone water or groundwater quality from the introduction of stormwater through BMPs. Using the US Bureau of Reclamation Groundwater Augmentation Model, the Council also found that in an average rainfall year, 380,000 acre feet (AF) of stormwater flows over the LA Basin and into the ocean. Common estimates imagine this is enough water for nearly 1 million homes for 1 year.

To take stormwater infiltration further the Watershed Council led the construction of the Elmer Avenue demonstration project – a partnership between several LA City agencies and residents. The bioswales, infiltration basins and curb cuts capture all of the dry weather flow and the first 1” of a rainstorm.

Council estimates suggest only 15% of rainwater falling within the City of Los Angeles is currently captured and infiltrates into the aquifer, or roughly 62,000 AF. If we capture and infiltrate 50% of the rainwater we will add 193,000 AF to the groundwater basin. This goal could be accomplished if each property and neighborhood was retrofitted to capture about the first ¾”of a rainstorm.

In closing Mr. Antos asked the audience, “Do we have water security? Do we have generational water security? We have enough water today, but is the way we are managing water today the right way to ensure enough water 50 years from now or 100 years from now. I’m not sure. Is sustaining our current patterns enough? First we have to describe the city we agree to sustain and I’m not sure we’ve done that yet.”

The seminar was sponsored by Haaker Equipment Co. and Contech Engineered Solutions. It was co-hosted with Townhall LA and at lunch Townhall presented a panel discussion exploring LA’s sustainable water issues. LABS looks forward to hosting another World Water Day seminar in 2013.

>>Click here to view PDF versions of the presentations.

Click here to open narrated presentation

Thursday March 29th
6 pm Mixer, 7 pm Dinner

Monterey Hill Steakhouse
3700 W Ramona Blvd
Monterey Park 91754
(323) 264-8426

RSVP by March 23rd
alecm@jwce.com
or call Alec Mackie
(714) 428-4614

See flyer for more info

www.labsofcwea.com/databases/presentations/?category=25

The presentation by David Haug, LACSD Senior Engineer, will provide an overview on the progression of the Districts’ Clearwater Program and focus on the technical aspects of the four tunnel alternatives being evaluated in the EIR/EIS.
$40 members, $45 non-members, $20 students

When:
Thursday, February 23, 2012
6PM Mixer | 7PM Dinner
Where:
Proud Bird
11022 Aviation Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(310) 670-3093

RSVP by 2/16 with
meal choice to:
alecm@jwce.com
Or call 714-428-4614

See flyer for more information

Tracking requirements will describe the responsibilities associated with several biosolids management practices, such as land application, composting, and disposal. Monitoring requirements for various biosolids management practices will be discussed, including sampling and analytical methods, frequency, and holding times.$10 members, $15 non-members, $5 students

When:
Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012
11am – 2pm

Where:
Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County
Conference Rooms E & F
1955 Workman Mill Road
Whittier, CA

Lunch: deli sandwichs, chips, cookies and sodas

RSVP: alecm@jwce.com by 1/27 please

See flyer for more information

(PDF formats)