West Basin Project Helps Advance Los Angeles Region Recycled Water Goals
The West Basin Municipal Water District (West Basin) announced the completion of a recycled water project at the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant (Hyperion) in Los Angeles that will initially save 10 million gallons of potable water per year. In future years, annual savings could approach 25 million gallons. In doing so, the project helps the City of Los Angeles move closer toward achieving its stated goal of recycling 100% of its wastewater by 2035.
In addition to boosting water supply reliability, the project benefits local ocean habitats by reducing the amount of treated sewage that is discharged into the Santa Monica Bay. Secondary-treated effluent is instead diverted to West Basin’s Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility (ECLWRF) in El Segundo, and eventually put to multiple beneficial uses as recycled water.
For more than 25 years, West Basin and the City of Los Angeles have partnered to provide recycled water to the South Bay region, offering a cost-effective and sustainable source of locally-controlled water. During this time, West Basin has produced more than 225 billion gallons of recycled water for customers in its service area.
The City of Los Angeles currently delivers approximately 40 million gallons of secondary treated sewage water to West Basin each day, which is further treated by West Basin to produce five different types of customer-specific recycled water. Recycled water supplies are used to replenish local groundwater basins, protect aquifers against seawater intrusion, provide industrial cooling tower and boiler feed water, and irrigate a wide variety of public green spaces throughout the region, including parks, schools, golf courses, and street medians.
The completed project allows recycled water to replace drinking water as part of the cooling and cleaning processes for the pumps located at the West Basin pump station, which delivers water from Hyperion to ECLWRF. Once recycled water has been used at the pump station, it is pumped back to ECLWRF for further cleaning, and used for additional beneficial recycled water purposes.
Project partners include West Basin, the City of Los Angeles Sanitation District, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
