DWP’s 10-Mile Pipeline Would Carry Reclaimed Water to Plant

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced plans Friday to build a 10-mile pipeline to expand its use of reclaimed water in the San Fernando Valley.

The pipeline plan was conceived in the late 1960s but is being implemented now to demonstrate the city’s commitment to water conservation at a time when Mayor Tom Bradley is seeking to impose citywide water rationing measures, said Bruce Kuebler, assistant chief engineer of the DWP’s water system.

The pipeline, estimated to cost between $10 million and $20 million, will transport reclaimed water from the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in the Sepulveda Basin to the DWP’s Valley Generating Station in Sun Valley, where it will be used for power-plant cooling, the DWP said.

The DWP hopes to complete the pipeline within a year. The route has not yet been determined but at least part of it will be beneath city streets, a DWP spokesman said.

About 4,000 acre-feet of water per year will be diverted to the power plant, Kuebler said. This additional use of water that would otherwise be dumped from the Tillman plant into the Los Angeles River will be a significant increase from the DWP’s current use of reclaimed water, estimated at 1,100 to 1,200 acre-feet per year, Kuebler said.

However, the 4,000 acre-feet would make only a small dent in the city’s water needs. The DWP estimates that the city will use 710,000 acre-feet this year.

“It’s going to be a very small percentage, but it demonstrates a commitment to look much more carefully and harder at using our local resources more,” Kuebler said.

Bradley announced Wednesday that he wants mandatory water rationing to cut consumption by 10% from pre-drought 1986 levels. Earlier he had appealed for voluntary water conservation.

The reclaimed water to be shipped through the DWP’s planned pipeline to the Sun Valley power plant would meet all of the plant’s cooling needs, he said. It would save enough water from the city’s regular supplies to serve about 20,000 residents a year, he said.

DWP officials also will consider other ways to use the pipeline to increase the use of reclaimed water in areas along it, Kuebler said. Such uses could include irrigating parks, golf courses and freeway landscaping, he said.