Los Angeles to double its wastewater recycling capacity
In Los Angeles, the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant is slated for an upgrade to double its wastewater recycling capacity. This upgrade will allow for the treatment of 45 million gallons per day. The upgrade will provide water to 500,000 residents.
Additionally, it will enable Los Angeles to stop using water from mountain streams that feed Mono Lake. The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) Board of Commissioners met to discuss how by increasing the water recycling capacity it will make up for the 2% of LA’s water that comes from Mono Basin streams. Mono Lake is an ecologically significant and threatened water body more than 300 miles north of LA.
“This is a solution with a lot of winners,” said Mono Lake and DWP Commission President Richard Katz. “We won’t need Mono Lake water to meet the supplies in LA.” Elin, Communications Coordinator for the Mono Lake Organization wrote that this the project should allow the DWP to fulfill its commitment to let Mono Lake rise to the healthy management level. The commitment was ordered by the State Water Board more than 30 years ago and is nine feet higher than the lake stands today.
