BOTTOMS UP IN SUPPLIES FOR DRINKING.

Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW

Staff Writer

ENCINO -- After years of controversy, Los Angeles finally is poised to boost its use of reclaimed sewage water to free up drinking supplies amid its driest year on record.

Recycled water will soon wet parks, spray golf courses, cool power plants, push back seawater and, by next summer, save enough potable water to supply 23,000 homes.

In five years, drinking supplies saved by reclaimed water are expected to more than double to 47,000 households.

"Every drop of recycled water that is used productively means a drop of potable water that is used for drinking purposes," said H. David Nahai, president of the board that governs the DWP. "This water is right under our noses and we need to use it.

"We have the technology. We have the resources. It would be a dereliction of duty not to pursue this avenue of adding to our water resources."

The Department of Water and Power now sends most of its highly treated sewage water cascading into the Los Angeles River and out to sea.

But as water supplies tighten from drought -- Los Angeles just had its driest rain season in 130 years of recorded history with 3.21 inches -- and the city expects to swell by 700,000 residents in 13 years, reclaimed water likely will serve a much greater role in shoring up the city's drinking water supply.

Last fall, Los Angeles public works officials unveiled a $3 billion plan to upgrade the city's sewer, storm water and water treatment systems.

Doubling use

Part of that plan, according to a recent DWP analysis, calls for doubling the use of reclaimed water for irrigation, industrial and seawater barriers.

Permits issued this year by state health and water regulators allow for such use of reclaimed water to grow from 4,101 acre-feet this year to 11,450 acre-feet a year by next summer.

By 2013, that number is expected to grow to 23,400 acre-feet, enough to free up enough potable water for 46,800 households' needs.

An acre-foot, or roughly 326,000 gallons, is enough water to supply two average households in a year.

Such water hasn't come without a price, or without controversy.

Water-recycling projects have cost the DWP more than $100 million since 1979, including the cost of pipes to send water from four reclamation plants to water Griffith Park, Forest Lawn Memorial-Park and Universal Studios.

Seven years ago, an unrelated plan to filter reclaimed water into the Valley's drinking water aquifer was shelved because of community outrage over "Toilet to Tap" headlines.

And it has taken 20 years for the state Department of Health and the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board to issue a green light to use reclaimed water near groundwater.

For years, there were fears that if reclaimed water from golf courses or other uses got into the drinking-water supply, it would be extremely costly to clean up. Others point out that, before 1965, cesspools across the Valley filtered untreated sewage straight into the water table.

But after decades of deliberation, regulators finally deemed reclaimed water to be safe.

Nowhere is this more evident than the San Fernando Valley, they say, where the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant treats mostly household sewage in the midst of the Sepulveda Basin.

Tillman now produces up to 56,000 acre-feet a year of reclaimed water, of which a portion is diverted through Lake Balboa, the Japanese Gardens and Wildlife Lake. But while a fraction of highly treated water goes toward irrigation, most ends up in the L.A. River.

This fall, that will change as sprinklers splash reclaimed water onto Woodley Lakes Golf Course, followed by the Encino and Balboa links.

By mid-2008, plans call for reclaimed water to be flowing through the Valley Generating Station, otherwise known as the Steam Plant.

In five years, the Hansen Dam Golf Course, schools and the entire Sepulveda Basin are expected to be irrigated with highly treated sewage water, enough to free up potable water for 10,300 Valley households, according to the DWP.

Areas to be added

Across the city, the L.A. Zoo, Dodger Stadium and golf courses, parks, power pants, oil refineries and harbor seawater-protection barriers will be added to the mix, DWP officials said.

Use of recycled water is expected to increase from less than 1 percent of city water supply to 3 percent, with 30,000 acre-feet reserved to protect L.A. River habitat.

With the city this year expected to pay a high cost to buy 70 percent of its water from the Metropolitan Water District, this could mean substantial savings.

"We're always looking for local resources that will reduce our dependence on imported supply," said Jim McDaniel, DWP chief operating officer for water systems. "When we can have basically drought-proof local resources, that's a great thing for the city."

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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