LADWP to build groundwater treatment plants on San Fernando Valley Superfund site
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power plans to build the world’s largest groundwater treatment center over one of the largest Superfund pollution sites in the United States: the San Fernando Basin.
Two plants costing a combined $600 million to $800 million will restore groundwater pumping of drinking water from scores of San Fernando Valley wells that the DWP began closing in the 1980s, the utility said. The plants also will ensure that other wells remain open despite pollution plumes steadily migrating in their direction.
The plans mark a major shift at DWP, reversing a trend of recent decades in which the utility has offset diminishing use of groundwater with imports from Northern California and the eastern Sierra.
“By 2035, we plan to reduce our purchases of imported water by half,” said James McDaniel, the DWP’s senior assistant general manager.
-- Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times