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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Large volumes of polluted stormwater degrade the nation’s rivers, lakes and aquatic habitats and contribute to downstream flooding. Green infrastructure captures and filters pollutants by passing stormwater through soils and retaining it on site. Effective green infrastructure tools and techniques include green roofs, permeable materials, alternative designs for streets and buildings, trees, rain gardens and rain harvesting systems.

As part of the strategy, EPA will work with partners including local governments, watershed groups, tribes and others in ten cities that have utilized green infrastructure and have plans for additional projects. EPA will encourage and support expanded use of green infrastructure in these cities and highlight them as models for other municipalities around the country. The ten cities are: Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Cleveland, OH; Denver, CO; Jacksonville, FL.; Kansas City, MO.; Los Angeles, CA; Puyallup, WA; Syracuse, N.Y.; and Washington, D.C. and neighboring Anacostia Watershed communities.

EPA will continue to work with other federal agencies, state and local governments, tribes, municipalities, and the private sector to identify opportunities for using green infrastructure and provide assistance to communities implementing green approaches to control stormwater. EPA will also provide additional tools to help states and communities leverage green infrastructure opportunities within other innovative environmental projects.

For more information on EPA’s green infrastructure agenda: http://epa.gov/greeninfrastructure

Where can LA County get more green energy for the future? One source is an extensive power generation project at the Joint Water Pollution Control Plant (JWPCP) in Carson. When completed, the state-of-the-art facility will turn wastewater sent into Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts’ (LACSD) sewer system into as much as 36 megawatts (MW) of clean, green power every day.

When JWPCP flips the switch later this year, the Power Generation Facility, known as the Total Energy Facility, will produce enough electricity to run the entire plant and, at times, sell surplus to the power grid. Turning sewage biogas into electricity is the goal of the Steam Cycle Modifications Project, according to LACSD Engineer Tom Fang who spoke during a March 17th dinner meeting of the Los Angeles Basin Section (LABS) of CWEA.

JWPCP’s Total Energy Facility dates back to the 1980s and is an important source of power for the facility. Steam can be produced at the facility to heat the anaerobic digesters, and methane from the digesters, in turn, is used to fuel the power plant.

What’s unique about the Total Energy Facility is the combined cycle power plant. First, up to three 9.9 MW gas turbines burn digester gas much like a jet engine to directly generate electricity (the Brayton power cycle). The exhaust heat is then tapped to make steam that powers an 8.7 MW steam turbine generator (the Rankine cycle). Known as cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP), the upgraded facility will have 36 MW capacity and is expected to generate 23 MW on average.  That’s enough power for the entire JWPCP and then some.

Tom explained project planning dates back to late 1990s when LACSD expanded JWPCP to full secondary treatment. As part of the expansion, digesters were added requiring more heat and generating more digester gas.

In 2008 the upgrade took on greater urgency when the former steam turbine generator suffered a catastrophic failure. The reduced capacity meant more purchased power, raising the facility’s electric bill by $2-million per year.

Tom took the audience step by step through the project’s phased construction and major elements. The equipment being replaced in the project includes a steam turbine generator (STG), heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs), cooling towers, condenser, steam-to-steam generator, HVAC Chillers, High Pressure Gas Treatment System, and the Plant Control System. The three combustion turbines were previously upsized in 2001 and thus not part of recent upgrades. Startup is planned in late 2011.

Tom pointed out the project has taken years to become reality, but the payoff for the agency and its customers will be huge. Benefits include energy savings, reliable power and steam for the plant, less dependence on the grid, and avoiding utility emissions – thus fulfilling LACSD’s commitment to cost-effective, environmentally friendly operations.

In January, the project team was honored by LABS with the Engineering Achievement Award for 2010. Tom’s presentation is available on the LABS website at www.labsofcwea.com.

The facility is a demonstration facility designed to evaluate and monitor full scale equipment. It will intake the ocean water, purify it through the desalting process, recombine the brine concentrate with the purified water, and then send it back out into the ocean at the same concentrated level as it came in from the ocean. The facility is expected to operate for up to two years to provide data on how to proceed with a full-scale desalination plant.

Two ocean water intake technologies have been installed at the demonstration facility. Wedgewire screens that create small eddies and move fish and other marine life away from intake pipes and a sand filtration system that simulates sub ocean floor withdrawal of intake water are both in operation. Both technologies are protective of surrounding sea life. This is the first time the wedgewire screens will be operated and evaluated in an open ocean environment, protecting the ocean at the source.

An energy recapture system will take energy used in the purification process and recirculate it to be used again.

Adjacent to the demonstration facility is West Basin’s new Water Education Center exploring the reliability of imported water coming into Southern California, the importance of using water efficiently and an explanation and model of the technology used in the desalination process.

The Education Center makes available video footage from an underwater camera monitoring the marine life living around the wedgewire intake screens. There are also live fish tanks with identical species, one with ocean water and the other with the concentrated brine discharge, to demonstrate the safe levels of salts in the brine concentrate that the marine life flourish in.

The multipurpose facility is co-located at the Los Angeles Conservation Corps’ SEA Lab education center in Redondo Beach and is part of West Basin’s Water Reliability 2020 initiative to reduce the area’s dependence on less reliable imported water. By 2020, West Basin will control 66 percent of its water supply locally by doubling its recycling and conservation programs and adding 10 percent of its future water supply from ocean water desalination.

“After more than 15 years of aggressive conservation and water recycling programs, West Basin is proud to continue its history of water reliability innovation by pioneering environmentally responsible ocean-water desalination to help meet future water needs and supplement emergency supplies,” said West Basin Board President Gloria D. Gray. “West Basin is leading local efforts here in the Los Angeles area to produce safe, reliable, local supplies of drinking water for residents and businesses.”

Public tours of the facility will be offered beginning in January 2011. For updates, to subscribe to West Basin’s quarterly e-newsletter, or to learn more about our Water Reliability 2020 program, visit www.westbasin.org.

Link to Water Reuse Association Article

SAN DIEGO — When it comes to the prospect of turning wastewater into drinking water, a new report from the non-partisan research group Equinox Center shows it could be safer than most would think.

“Purified, recycled water is safer to drink than what we are drinking today,” said Aaron Contorer of the Equinox Center. “A significant portion of our water today is extracted from wastewater upstream.”

The Equinox Center’s report reveals a map of some 350 sewage plants that discharge wastewater into the waterways the country draws its water from before it is treated locally.

Essentially, the report shows everyone routinely drinks recycled wastewater.

Las Vegas already recycles its wastewater to drink, and that drinking water also ends up in the San Diego water supply.

“All the tests have shown purified, recycled water is safe and clean,” said Contorer. “According to our research, it’s safer, cleaner, more reliable and uses less energy than other water sources.”

The Equinox Center’s report comes days ahead of a critical vote, when the San Diego City Council will vote on a construction contract for an $11.8 million wastewater recycling pilot project.

It is a first step that could lead to recycled water in San Diego faucets if it is deemed successful.

Other areas that have wastewater-to-tap programs included Long Beach, Orange County, Reno and the country of Singapore.

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LOS ANGELES — Furthering its commitment to expand local water supplies and reduce the City’s dependence on imported water, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has successfully expanded its network of recycled water pipes to deliver treated reclaimed water to the newest customers in the San Fernando Valley: two local churches and the LADWP Power System, who will use recycled water for outdoor irrigation.  These new customers will reduce the need for using drinking water for non-potable purposes by 20 acre feet per year (AFY) or 6.5 million gallons.

“LADWP is working to expand the existing recycled water infrastructure in the San Fernando Valley so we can serve new irrigation and industrial customers  and save hundreds of acre feet a year in drinking water,” said Jim McDaniel, Senior Assistant General Manager, LADWP Water System.

The First Foursquare Church of Van Nuys, whose property includes two campuses on Sherman Way, will utilize 3.6 million gallons to irrigate its 2-acre sports field.  The St. Elisabeth Catholic Church will utilize 2.3 million gallons to irrigate its property.  LADWP’s own electrical Distribution Station 60 will utilize 653,400 gallons, the first LADWP facility in the Valley to take recycled water for strictly irrigation purposes.  Together, these customers will replace enough drinking water to supply 40 households for a year.

All three customers are located in the Van Nuys area of the San Fernando Valley.  LADWP owns and operates 14.9 miles of existing and newly-installed recycled water lines that run primarily from the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys to the Hansen Tank at the Valley Generating Station in Sun Valley.

To help pay for these and additional new recycled water pipes, the Department was successful in securing an agreement with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to expand recycled water distribution in the Van Nuys area with the construction of 10,000 feet of pipes connecting the existing 16-inch water recycling pipeline along Kester Avenue and Sherman Way to supply recycled water to customers. The agreement provides LADWP with $937,500 in grant funding with the expectation that the project deliver its full capacity of 49 million gallons in 25 years.

The LADWP has successfully begun delivering recycled water from the Donald C. Tillman Reclamation Plant to: irrigate Woodley, Encino and Balboa golf courses, and the Balboa Sports Complex; to provide recycled water for the cooling towers of Valley Generating Station power plant in Sun Valley; and to provide water for the Los Angeles River, the Japanese Garden, Lake Balboa and the Wildlife Lake in the Sepulveda Basin. Together, recycled water to these facilities totals 1,400 AFY, or over 456 million gallons.

The LADWP partners with the Department of Public Works Bureau of Sanitation to reclaim wastewater for beneficial reuse that is approved and monitored by the California Department of Public Health. It is delivered in a dedicated “purple pipe” system that is separate from the City’s drinking water and sewer systems.

The LADWP Water System currently contains approximately 45 miles of recycled water pipeline, along with 2 storage tanks and 3 pump stations.  The pipeline system is capable of conveying 2.6 billion gallons to the Department’s 125 recycled water customers.  Going forward, LADWP plans to install 20 more miles of new pipeline in the next 5 years and deliver 16.3 billion gallons of recycled water by 2028 – enough to offset water demand for about 100,000 households.

Recycled water amounts to roughly 2% of the City’s total water supply at present.  The Department goal is to increase recycled water levels to equal 6% of the City’s water supply.  LADWP has invested $200 million in the recycled water program to date.
 
For more information contact:

Joseph Ramallo
LADWP Public Affairs
(213) 367-1361

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