I am delighted to invite you to join me at an important state event we are hosting next week. For twenty years, TreePeople has demonstrated the technical, economic and social feasibility of rainwater harvesting and watershed management to create a sustainable local water supply. We are pleased to host a special California State Assembly Hearing on the “Future of Stormwater:  Capture, Store and Supply.”

When: Friday, May 18,2012

• 10:00 am tour of the LaKretz Urban Watershed Garden and TreePeople’s 216,000 gallon cisternand unique urban rainwater harvesting facilities.
• Hearing from 10:30 am -12:30 pm.  Public testimony to follow.

Where:

The LEED Platinum Conference Center at the TreePeople Center for Community Forestry, 12601 Mulholland Drive, at the intersection of Coldwater Canyon Blvd.

What:

This hearing of the State Assembly’s Select Committee on Regional Approaches to Addressing the State’s Water Crisis, chaired by Assemblyman Jose Solorio, will highlight innovations that government agencies and organizations, including TreePeople, have built over the past 20 years. These demonstrate how harvesting and better managing local rainwater can be scaled region-wide to provide a substantial portion of our water supply.  

Join us and learn with our legislators about the tremendous opportunities as well as the obstacles that must be addressed to allow a major investment in developing rainwater into a vital local water supply.  

Please see the attached agenda for details.

How:

Space is limited. To register, RSVP to Gordon Welty – gwelty@treepeople.org. or call (818) 623-4870. Registration deadline: Wednesday, May 16^th.

In appreciation for your support of the vision and work which has made this possible,

Andy Lipkis,

President and Founder

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.

City of Santa Monica, CA

Salary: $3,577 – $4,416 Monthly

JOB SUMMARY:  Assists in the repair, maintenance and installation of sewer lines and storm drains in the municipal wastewater collection system.

 REQUIREMENTS:  Graduation from high school or the equivalent.  One year of recent, paid work experience performing general construction or repair work which has included excavation, trenching, and shoring activities and heavy physical labor. Recent experience working on a plumbing, wastewater or water distribution system is desirable.  Licenses and Certificates:  Possession of a valid Class C driver license. A Class B driver license must be obtained within six months from date of hire.  A Grade 1 Collection System Maintenance Certificate issued from the California Water Environment Association must be obtained within one year from date of hire. Must maintain a valid Grade 1 Collection System Maintenance Certificate.

 Applications will be accepted by the Human Resources Department on one day only, Friday, May 11, 2012, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. 

 For complete details and how to apply visit:  www.smgov.net/hr

Thursday, June 14, 2012  8:00 am – 2:30 pm

City of Simi Valley Water Quality Control Plant

600 W. Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley, CA 93065

See Flyer for more information.

CONFERENCE PHOTOS

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FRIDAY NIGHT CWEA BANQUET
“A Night In New Orleans” 

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Elementary, Middle and High School Students come and see a laser show and what lasers are used for.

Saturday June 2, 2012, 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

• “Build It” at 9:30 a.m.
• Laser Show at 10:00 a.m.
• Activities at 11:00 a.m.
• Adjournment 1:00 p.m.

True Way M.B.C./9122 S. San Pedro Street/Los Angeles/CA 90003

Special Guests: 
Jan Perry, Councilmember, City of Los Angeles
Valerie Shaw, Commissioner, Board of Public Works, City of Los Angeles

Students RSVP to Theo Higgins: 310 749-1868, Sunny Owairu: 310 686-0461, or Tyrie Mitchell: 310 571-7073

Flyer

For more infoormation see the flyer.

When:  Wednesday May 16, 2012

Where:  Sanitation Districts of LA County, 1965 Workman Mill Rd Whittier, CA 90601

See Flyer for more information.