Would Trap Solvent Vapors : DWP Schedules Hearing on Water Aeration Tower

A public hearing will be held Tuesday on the city’s plans to build an aeration tower in North Hollywood to remove chemical contaminants in water from San Fernando Valley wells that furnish 15% of the Los Angeles water supply.

The hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Room 1555-H of the Department of Water and Power’s building at 111 N. Hope St. Free parking will be available, department officials said.

The 48-foot aeration tower, which would be built in the DWP storage yard at 11845 Vose St., is intended to remove traces of solvents from ground water through evaporation. Polluted water would be pumped up the tower and blasted with a stream of air, accelerating the natural tendency of the solvents to evaporate.

The hearing is intended to get public response to a change in the proposal involving the installation of carbon filters to prevent traces of solvent vapor from escaping to the air.

At a public hearing in May in North Hollywood, area residents and enviromentalists complained that the project would merely transfer contaminants from one medium to another. That hearing was sponsored by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, to which the DWP has applied for an air emissions permit.

DWP officials later announced that they would filter solvent vapors from the tower to allay public fears, although they still maintain that uncontrolled emissions pose no significant health risk.

Water officials say the polluted water is not a health hazard because they shut down the most contaminated wells, but that water supplies eventually could be squeezed if the water isn’t cleaned up. The $2.2-million aeration project could be operating by the end of next year.