Removing Reservoirs From Service Ill-Advised

For more than a decade, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has been under mandate from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Health Services to improve its water quality.

During this period, state law and EPA water quality regulations have been tightened, new rules that are especially important to Los Angeles water users who receive much of their drinking water from open reservoirs.

Los Angeles water is a blend that comes from several sources. When water, no matter how pure, remains in an open reservoir, it picks up objectionable color, taste and odors. Both the Stone Canyon and Encino reservoirs are prone to contamination because of surface water and runoff draining into them. These reservoirs are contaminated by animal and bird droppings, algae growth and chlorine byproducts.

Fortunately, modern direct filtration plants are able to minimize the effects of contaminates in the water supply.

On June 5, 1991, California passed surface water filtration and disinfection treatment regulations. The law required the DWP to cover open reservoirs or build filtration plants to provide disinfection treatment by June 29, 1993.

On Jan. 28, 1992, the DWP promised the Department of Health Services it would build three filtration plants at a cost of approximately $500 million to address its water quality problem.

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Several years ago, the DWP began a belated effort to actually find sites and design and build the promised filtration plants for the Stone Canyon and Encino reservoirs. But after many community meetings and much debate, the DWP decided on a system of smaller micro-filtration plants that would cost less than direct filtration, marginally meeting water quality standards while providing a lower volume of water.

But the debt-ridden DWP didn’t want the filtration plants because of their cost. Neighbors didn’t want the construction inconvenience or interference with their views. Local politicians didn’t want to hear construction complaints from constituents.

With no plans in sight and little or no progress, the Department of Health Services in March of 1998 issued a citation for noncompliance requiring the DWP to set out a timetable to meet state regulations or take the reservoirs out of service.

The DWP quietly lobbied the Department of Health Services to oppose the construction of the filtration plants altogether. On Feb. 8, S. David Freeman, DWP’s general manager, met with the Department of Health Services to seek “avoidance criteria” and scrapped all design and permitting efforts on filtration plants. The DWP instead hoped to rely on untested and unproven water management techniques.

On May 13, the EPA finally put its foot down. It sent a strongly worded letter to the Department of Health Services stating that it was concerned about the DWP’s “continuing violation of and delay in compliance” with the surface water filtration and disinfection treatment regulations. It said that the DWP “must filter the water” from Stone Canyon and Encino reservoirs. This left Freeman with two choices: Filter the water or take the reservoirs out of service. On May 20, he announced that the DWP proposal to take both reservoirs out of service.

Instead of using the reservoirs for storage, the DWP would increase the size of water supply lines from a filtration plant in Sylmar.

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Scrapping the reservoirs is ill-conceived. Without them, the DWP won’t have a backup potable water supply in case of an earthquake or disruption in the Sylmar supply lines.

Firefighting might also be compromised. Without water pressure from the reservoirs, the fire departments’ capability might be reduced because it would be dependent on the vulnerable supply lines from Sylmar. Water pressure would drop dangerously low if many hillside hydrants were opened simultaneously to fight a fire.

In addition, without the reservoirs to store the water, the DWP would not be able to buy water cheaply during the winter months from the Metropolitan Water District at a savings of up to 25%.

The DWP is considering using non-potable filtration to control algae, odor and other problems. So in the end, residents would end up paying for filtration plants that would not produce one drop of drinkable water.

Water quality and system reliability are too important to be left up to a few state bureaucrats who must fend off the heavy lobbying efforts of local politicians, the DWP and a handful of opposing residents.