Water Sector News
A snapshot of clean water stories from publications around the country, updated daily!
Santa Monica-Based Group Wins Historic Wastewater Recycling Suit
Every day Hyperion Water Treatment Plant discharges enough treated wastewater into the ocean to fill the Rose Bowl 2.5 times over. Now a court has instructed state water officials to analyze whether it is “wasteful” and “unreasonable” to dump billions of gallons of wastewater into the sea.
According to Santa Monica-based advocacy group Los Angeles Waterkeeper, water treatment plants Hyperion, Tillman, Burbank and Los Angeles-Glendale dump an average of nearly 270 million gallons of treated water into the Los Angeles River and Pacific Ocean every day. Hyperion alone discharges enough treated wastewater into the ocean to fill the Rose Bowl 2.5 times over every day. During most days, treated discharge from sewage plants makes up the majority of flow in the LA River, Los Angeles Waterkeeper, according to Los Angeles Waterkeeper.
On August 4, the Los Angeles Superior Court filed a decision, in favor of Los Angeles Waterkeeper that compels the State’s Water Resources Control Board (California’s lead water quality agency) to analyze whether it is “wasteful” and “unreasonable” to dump billions of gallons of wastewater into the sea, when it could instead be used productively to ensure the sustainability of California’s water resources.