DWP seeks to reclaim sewage water through indirect purification method

Los Angeles wastewater may soon become cleaner than a mountain spring.

But officials say a plan to spend $700 million to recycle sewage into drinking water rests on the future of rates being proposed today.

"One of our key strategies to becoming less reliant on imported water is to recycle water," said James Yannotta, assistant director of water resources for the Department of Water and Power. "Through `purple pipe' for industrial or commercial purposes, or groundwater replenishment to the point where it is essentially distilled.

"It is cleaner than any other water."

Yannotta was standing inside the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Encino, not far from the site where the DWP is wrapping up its yearlong study in advanced water treatment.

The plant already sends 40 million gallons of reclaimed water each day through the DWP steam plant in Pacoima, and into the Los Angeles River and out to sea.

Advanced treatment would further purify some of that water, which would be used to replenish underground wells.

Not to be confused with the "toilet-to-tap" plan of a decade ago, the new groundwater replenishment system would add extra layers of high-tech cleansing.

It would also be based on the successful indirect "potable reuse" project employed since 2007 by Orange County.

The city plans to highly purify up to 30,000 acre-feet of treated water a year - or 5 percent of the city's average water use - then inject it into underground water wells. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons.

It would also expand its so-called tertiary water treatment from 7,500 acre-feet a year to 59,000 acre-feet annually, with new networks of nonpotable "purple pipe" linked to parks and industrial water uses.

By 2035, the DWP hopes to increase its use of reclaimed water from 1 to 8 percent.

The $700 million cost would be offset, in part, by importing less water from Northern California or the Colorado River - the source of more than half of the city's H2O.

"If you do a longer-term analysis, recycled water is cheaper than importing water," Yannotta said, "because importing water will increase at a greater rate."

On Tuesday, engineers took the last look at the Groundwater Replenishment Treatment Pilot Study - which uses tanks, pumps and plastic tubing to transform sewage into highly purified water. The $2 million study was offset, in part, by a $600,000 federal grant.

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