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.

The 30-minute segment, titled “Water: The Best Deal Around,” showcases the value of tap water service and explains many of the factors affecting the cost of treating and delivering water today. Produced by Huell Howser and underwritten by ACWA, the segment debuts April 3 on KPBS in San Diego and KVIE in Sacramento. Additional airdates are scheduled throughout the state through June.

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The average American uses 90 gallons of water each day, of which only about two gallons go toward drinking and cooking.  In fact, we use twice as much water – four gallons – washing dishes than we do in preparing and eatings out meals.  Laundry uses, on average, 8.5 gallons of water a day per person, while 25 gallons of water a day per person go toward lawn watering and pools.

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Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant (City of Los Angeles) combines advanced wastewater treatment technology with the beauty and tranquility of its landscaped gardens. The plant provides 26MGD reclaimed water to many users in the San Fernando Valley.  The Japanese Gardens built adjacent to the treatment plant, are irrigated with reclaimed water from the plant and are open to the public on a year round basis.

When:  March 20, 2012  Tuesday @ 10am

Venue:  6100 Woodley Ave, Van Nuys, CA 91406

Cost:  Free

RSVP:  Rachel Deco rdeco@lacsd.org

For more info see the flyer

It took three years and more than $26 million to turn an old MTA bus yard in South Los Angeles into what it is today: a sprawling park and urban wetland that will store and clean millions of gallons of storm water — while also giving children a place to play.

Unlike most parks, which feature green lawns and picnic tables, this one is composed of walking paths, native plants and several kidney-shaped pools filled with storm water. Naturally occurring bacteria clean pollutants from the water, which eventually feeds into a storm drain.

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The biggest winner from the project is Long Beach, where workers routinely have to scoop floating islands of plastic bottles, grocery bags and other debris flowing from dozens of communities upstream before it litters the city’s coastline. In August 2010, crews began installing the stainless-steel, full-capture trash devices inside nearly 12,000 catch basins. The simple mesh contraptions sit just below the drains where water from city streets flows into the storm-water system and can catch debris as small as a cigarette butt.

Another 5,400 drains in the most-littered areas also were outfitted with street-level retractable screens as a second layer of defense.

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Recent advances in information technology infrastructure as well as hardware systems and software solutions are providing the foundation for a future of ubiquitous, digitally-connected, green infrastructure. Intelligent management of such infrastructure will change the way we understand and control our urban environments and impact natural systems.

The availability of a new breed of robust, extremely low cost, highly functional, internet accessible, programmable logic controller systems coupled with the ease of wired and wireless communications are making onsite real-time and dynamic controls viable options for both new construction as well as retrofits with green infrastructure based stormwater systems.

The total costs for design, equipment, and installation of the active components for demonstrations will be partially subsidized with in-kind contributions from WERF and the project team. Typical costs for an installation are $20-25K. However, under this research project the costs for participating test sites will be in the range of $10-15K resulting in significant savings to participants. Actual costs will depend on site specific conditions. The costs do not include the cost of implementing the BMP itself (e.g. cistern, green roof, bioretention, etc.).

In many cases, retrofitting an existing BMP may be the most effective approach. In addition to the improving the effectiveness of the BMP and saving cost on implementation, other benefits to test site participants include gaining experience with high performance green infrastructure, learning efficient ways to meet stormwater regulations and requirements, identifying new approaches for stormwater reuse, and taking part in a significant research study to help transform the infrastructure of cities and towns.

To learn more about or to express interest in participating as a test site in this targeted collaborative research (TCR) project, contact Senior Program Director Jeff Moeller at jmoeller@werf.org or 571-384-2104 by Oct 31, 2011.

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Vander Lans AWTF

According to city officials, the program will allow residents to conserve resources by using water from their washing machines, also known as graywater, for backyard irrigation systems for trees, shrubs and gardens.

In March, the City Council approved the program, which was co-sponsored by council members James Johnson, Patrick O’Donnell and Suja Lowenthal.

“Today, Long Beach leads the way by being one of the first cities to test this innovative way to conserve scarce water,” said Johnson. “By reusing water on site, graywater has the potential to both save water and money for Long Beach residents.

Long Beach City Councilman James Johnson announces the city’s new “Laundry to Landscape” pilot program for single-family homes. The pilot project uses “graywater” from washing machines in irrigation systems. 36 homes will be picked from those that apply to receive the system free of charge. (Jeff Gritchen / Staff Photographer)save water and money for Long Beach residents.”

The program is a partnership between the Long Beach Water Department, which is also funding the project, and the Office of Sustainability.

“Long Beach has placed itself at the forefront of the water conservation movement. Our residents, our customers have enthusiastically answered our calls to minimize or eliminate all of the wasteful and inefficient … water use habits,” said Frank Clark, vice president of the Long Beach Water Department Board of Commissioners. “During the period of four years the city has achieved and attained a 17 percent reduction in citywide water use.”

 Better use of water prepares the city for the future, Johnson said.

“Long Beach, like all Southern California cities, will continue to face water scarcity over the long run and today. What we’re saying as a community is we’re going to plan for that long run,” Johnson said. “We need to use the water we already have in smarter ways instead of discarding it into our sewers, and that’s what this is all about.”

The program is open to single-family homeowners with suitable properties. Of the residents who submit applications, four in each of the nine council districts will be selected to receive a free installation initially under the pilot program.

Graywater irrigation systems are safe for watering most vegetable gardens, except for root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots. It is not recommended for watering lawns.

“Conventional wisdom and common sense ideas are essential when adopting progressive improvement,” said Mayor Bob Foster. “The ‘Laundry to Landscape’ program helps raise awareness throughout the community, change attitudes and encourage greater participation in sustainability efforts.”

“We believe that this program is simple in concept and we, through our efforts, hope to prove that it’s simple in implementation as well,” said Larry Rich, of the Office of Sustainability.

Here’s how it will work: A converter will be installed to the rear of a closed washing machine, which will either send the water to the sewer, where it currently goes, or directly to the landscape.

“Our team of field workers at Sustainability, with the help of a professional plumber, will install a below-ground drip irrigation system that will have eight to 12 points where the water will be distributed in the backyard,” said Rich.

The cost of the system is estimated to be about $750 each, he said.

“Through these 36 installations we will do across the city, we’re going to test that theory about the simplicity of these installations and the cost and savings involved,” Rich said.

Additional benefits will include reduced consumption of potable water, reduced load on the city’s sewage infrastructure and the replenishment of natural groundwater sources, he said.

“This is a really good day for the city of Long Beach and I think the beginning of a better day for all of Southern California,” said Mayor Bob Foster. “This is a continuing program that we have to use water more wisely, to make it go a lot longer. … A very good use of the water will save a lot of water for other purposes and it will demonstrate that you can make conservation go even further in Long Beach.”

pam.hale@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1476.

 Laundry to Landscape

What: Pilot program to use household wastewater from laundry to irrigate trees, shrubs and gardens.

Who can participate: Single-family homeowners are eligible to apply. From the applications received, four residences from each of the nine City Council districts will be selected. A licensed plumber will then install the system in the 36 homes.

How: To apply, call 562-570-6281 or visit www.sustainablelb.com.

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Haddad is a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. About 14 years ago, he became very interested in the issue of water reuse.

At the time, a number of California’s local water agencies were proposing a different approach to the state’s perennial water problems. They wanted to build plants that would clean local wastewater — aka sewage water — and after that cleaning, make it available as drinking water. But, says Haddad, these proposals were consistently shot down by an unwilling public.

“The public wasn’t really examining the science involved,” Haddad says. “They were just saying no.” This infuriated the water engineers, who thought the public’s response was fundamentally irrational, Haddad says.

“That’s what I would hear at these water agency meetings,” Haddad says, “these very frustrated water engineers saying, ‘My public is irrational! They are irrational! They simply won’t listen!’ ”

For those unfamiliar with water reuse, it’s a system by which water that has been used in your toilet or sink or shower is purified through a variety of technological processes that make it clean enough to drink. Then it’s reused in the same location: It’s used to water fields. It’s put in reservoirs. It can also be used for drinking water.

From the perspective of the water engineers Haddad was talking with, this kind of reuse was a no-brainer. The benefits were clear, and the science suggested that the water would be safe. Clean Water Action, an environmental activist group, also supports reuse for drinking water, though it thinks there should be national regulatory standards.

But according to Haddad, no matter what the scientists or environmental organizations said, the public saw it differently: They thought that directly reusing former sewage water was just plain gross.

“A scientific answer is not going to satisfy someone who is feeling revulsion,” says Haddad. “You have to approach it in a different way.”

That’s why Haddad turned to a nonprofit called the WateReuse Research Foundation for funding for a study. He wanted to figure out more about the public’s response to reused water, and for that he needed additional people. This was a job, Haddad concluded, for psychologists.

Psychological Contagion

Carol Nemeroff is one of the psychologists Haddad recruited to help him with his research. She works at the University of Southern Maine and studies psychological contagion. The term refers to the habit we all have of thinking — consciously or not — that once something has had contact with another thing, their parts are in some way joined.

“It’s a very broad feature of human thinking,” Nemeroff explains. “Everywhere we look, you can see contagion thinking.”

Contagion thinking isn’t always negative. Often, we think it is some essence of goodness that has somehow been transmitted to an object — think of a holy relic or a piece of family jewelry.

Nemeroff offers one example: “If I have my grandmother’s ring versus an exact replica of my grandmother’s ring, my grandmother’s ring is actually better because she was in contact with it — she wore it. So we act like objects — their history is part of the object.”

And according to Nemeroff, there are very good reasons why people think like this. As a basic rule of thumb for making decisions, when we’re uncertain about realities in the world, contagion thinking has probably served us well. “If it’s icky, don’t touch it,” says Nemeroff.

The researchers led by Haddad wanted to figure out more about how our beliefs about contagion in water work. And so they recruited more than 2,000 people and gave them a series of detailed questionnaires that sought to break down exactly what would have to be done to wastewater to make it acceptable to the public to drink. The conclusion?

“It is quite difficult to get the cognitive sewage out of the water, even after the real sewage is gone,” Nemeroff says.

Around 60 percent of people are unwilling to drink water that has had direct contact with sewage, according to their research.

But as Nemeroff points out, there is a certain irony to this position, at least when viewed from the perspective of a water engineer. You see, we are all already basically drinking water that has at one point been sewage. After all, “we are all downstream from someone else,” as Nemeroff says. “And even the nice fresh pure spring water? Birds and fish poop in it. So there is no water that has not been pooped in somewhere.”

Ridding Water Of Psychological ‘Poop’

So what do you need to do to make reused water acceptable to the public?

Nemeroff says you need to change the identity of the water so that it’s not the same water. “It’s an identity issue, not a contents issue,” she says, “so you have to break that perception. The water you’re drinking has to not be the same water, in your mind, as that raw sewage going in.”

One of the best ways to do that, Nemeroff and Haddad and their colleagues concluded, was to have people cognitively co-mingle the water with nature.

Apparently, if you have people imagine the water going into an underground aquifer, for example, and then sitting there for 10 years, the water becomes much more palatable to the public. It budges even those most unwilling to drink the water.

This, Haddad says, is why people find it acceptable to get their water supply from their local river, even though that river water at one point mingled with the sewage of the town upstream. People see river water as natural.

But, in fact, Haddad says, putting treated water back into nature can make it less clean.

“That’s an interesting twist to all of this,” Haddad says. “When you do introduce a river or even groundwater … you run the risk of deteriorating the water that’s been treated. You can make the water quality worse.”

In any case, say Nemeroff and Haddad, it’s certainly true that our psychological relationship to water and our beliefs about contagion have an enormous impact on water policy in this country. We spend millions and millions of dollars for water that is cognitively, if not actually, free of contamination.

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