The plan to recycle and purify Los Angeles’ wastewater for reuse as drinking water through groundwater recharge is moving forward with the recent approval of $740 million worth of recycling facilities to be built over the next decade.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), in partnership with LA Sanitation and Environment, is implementing the Los Angeles Groundwater Replenishment Project to restore the San Fernando Basin with highly purified recycled water. The city’s Board of Water and Power Commissioners gave final approval to move forward in late October.
When completed, the project will purify 25 million gallons per day of treated tertiary wastewater and produce drinking water for more than 250,000 customers, creating a new independent water supply to reduce the city’s reliance on imported water .
“This project is one of the key strategies to help reduce the purchase of imported water, increase our local water supplies and improve our water reliability,” says Anselmo Collins, LADWP Senior Assistant General Manager.
The project is based on the construction of the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, located in the San Fernando Valley. The plant will include a combination of operations, highlighted by the Donald C. Tillman Advanced Water Purification Facility and the Donald C. Tillman Advanced Water Equalization Basins, with both projects built by Jacobs. Construction on the plant is scheduled to begin later this year and completion is expected by December 2027, according to LADWP.
Both the treatment plant and equalization basin contracts were awarded to Jacobs as progressive design-build contracts, putting the company in charge of design, permitting, construction, commissioning and commissioning, supported by Kiewit as lead contracting partner.
“Managing limited water resources is a critical focus for California communities and for Jacobs,” Greg Fischer, Jacobs vice president of design, construction, operations management and facility services, said in a statement .
In total, Jacobs is supporting contracts estimated at up to $740 million at the Tillman site as part of the effort, with the largest contract being the $580 million purification facility. The equalization basins, which can hold up to 9.5 million gallons of water to help regulate variable flows at the larger facility, are priced at $110 million, and there are another 11 million dollars set aside for a Japanese garden effluent diversion.
The city selected the design-build phased delivery model to minimize costs, reduce risk, streamline construction and improve schedule performance, it said in a statement.
“For a project of this scale and complexity, the city wants to be involved from start to finish, and with progressive design and construction we can do that,” Ryan Thiha, LA Environmental and Sanitation Engineer and Project Director of the project , he previously said. “We also want to be able to see what’s going on behind the scenes and make sure there’s a seamless transition from design to construction and no knowledge gaps or downtime.”
The water cycle
The project involves treating wastewater from the existing water reclamation plant in LA’s Van Nuys neighborhood using microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and advanced ultraviolet oxidation.
The facility will also have electrical, maintenance and storage facilities to help produce and transport the purified water from Tillman, 10 miles northeast, to Hansen Spreading Grounds in LA County. There, the purified water will recharge the San Fernando Groundwater Basin and provide a new source of drought-resistant drinking water as it replenishes the groundwater aquifer. After additional testing and treatment, the water will be delivered to homes through taps.
The city has been using recycled water for over 40 years. The new plant will be the city’s third and largest, larger than the 12 million gallons per day at the Terminal Island Water Reclamation Plant and the 1.5 million gallons per day at the Reclamation Plant of Hyperion water. This is the first facility in LA to use recycled home tap water as drinking water.
The largest project of its kind in the world has been in place in nearby Orange County for about 15 years, taking highly treated wastewater that would otherwise have been dumped into the Pacific Ocean and it purifies them in a three-step process to produce 130 million gallons of water. water per day for 1 million customers.
“Supporting wastewater recycling infrastructure at scale now would be a strategic investment to address immediate water supply challenges and offers long-term economic and water security benefits,” says Nicolas Chow, researcher from UCLA and the University of Oxford, in a UCLA report that analyzed the benefits of the LA project.
The project has received more than $400 million in funding through local, state and federal programs, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Infrastructure Innovation and Financing Act program.
