Chief Named for Water Reclamation
Mayor Tom Bradley has named Bahman Sheikh to head the Office of Water Reclamation, a new city agency approved and funded by the Los Angeles City Council earlier this year with a mission to find markets for millions of gallons of water reclaimed daily from the city’s sewers.
Bradley said this week that the new office will work to “wipe out some of the myths (about reclaimed water) that have been obstacles” to developing markets for the water.
Officials said treatment technology now makes reclaimed water safe for irrigation and could soon make the water drinkable.
Sheikh, who joins the city from the engineering consulting firm of CH2M Hill, will receive an annual salary of more than $80,000 in his new role.
The city’s Tillman and Glendale Treatment Plants in the San Fernando Valley now reclaim 60 million gallons of water a day that is usable for agriculture and some industries.
“We’ll probably be, very soon, up to 120 million gallons a day” of reclaimed water, about a fourth the city’s daily water intake, predicted Ed Avila, president of the Board of Public Works.
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