DWP Says Its Spending Plan Is Paying Off

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is producing the highest quality water in its century-old history, the strongest evidence to date that the billions of dollars spent on water testing, treatment and infrastructure improvements are paying off, department officials said.

Improvements in water quality are the result of strict adherence to state and federal water-quality standards as well as continuous testing of the water supply for contaminants deemed unsafe, the officials said.

The utility chronicled its efforts to improve and expand water safety in its 2001 annual water-quality report, which it issued in four geographic regions: the San Fernando Valley, central and eastern Los Angeles, western Los Angeles and the harbor area. The document provides a detailed description of the testing, treatment, quality and safety of the water flowing to 3.8 million residential and commercial customers in Los Angeles.

“We want everyone to know that the department has made some extensive investments to ensure that LADWP serves high-quality water,” General Manager David Wiggs said. “We are proud that the water supplied today is the highest quality ever provided to Los Angeles residents.”

At a time when consumers are jittery about arsenic and chromium contamination and terrorist attacks on facilities, the department wants to reassure its customers it is doing all it can to ensure a safe water supply.

“We’ve evaluated the entire infrastructure of our system to determine the risk of physical, chemical, radiological and biological threats,” said Gerald Gewe, assistant manager for water services. “As a result, LADWP has put in place substantial improvements to safeguard the supply from saboteurs.”

The department plans to spend $132 million during the next five years to protect water and power buildings, reservoirs, water-treatment plants, storage and transmission facilities and the power system infrastructure, officials said. Additional security guards, fencing and alarms at facilities as well as increased water testing are among the proposed safety measures.

As it does each year to meet water-quality standards set by the California Department of Health Services and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the utility monitored its water supply for more than 170 contaminants, DWP officials said.

After conducting more than 196,000 tests on 24,000 samples throughout the year, only 45 of the 170 contaminants--including arsenic, chromium, lead, radon and copper--were detected and all were at levels deemed safe for consumption, according to the department’s annual report.

Sujatha Jahagirdar, safe drinking-water advocate for the California Public Interest Research Group, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit environmental and consumer advocacy organization, is concerned about perchlorate, a substance found in rocket fuel that has been detected in city water at safe levels by state and federal standards.

Perchlorate is an inorganic contaminant that interferes with the thyroid’s ability to use iodine to produce hormones.

Although the report states that the levels found in the water are lower than 4 parts per billion, Jahagirdar said the EPA is considering a draft recommendation to reduce the level to one part per billion. Jahagirdar said the city should follow suit.

“We would like to see the drinking-water providers in Southern California not only meeting the technical standards, but the spirit of the standards by providing the public with the maximum amount of information on health effects of contaminants in their drinking water,” she said.

In the next decade, the utility will invest more than $2 billion in infrastructure improvements, including $500 million to improve water quality, DWP officials said.

To protect the water supply from other forms of contamination, department officials are in the process of closing smaller, open reservoirs and replacing them with enclosed tanks.

“Basically, we drain the reservoirs and build a circular storage tank,” Jim McDaniel, director of water quality and operations, said. “Now you have the water protected from birds, airborne particles and sunlight that promotes algae growth.”

In the next few years, McDaniel said, the department plans to take the Encino and Stone Canyon reservoirs off line and retain the water as an emergency supply. The water now drawn from those reservoirs will be replaced by other city sources.

The department is also in the process of replacing bronze water meters, which typically contain 8% lead, with a meter made of mixed metal that has a negligible lead content, McDaniel said.

To reduce the potential long-term health risks that could be caused by disinfection byproducts, McDaniel said the utility intends to switch from chlorine to a chloramine--a chlorine and ammonia mixture--to disinfect water supplies. The byproducts occur when a disinfectant such as chlorine combines with naturally occurring materials in the water.

“A lot of customers object to the chlorine taste in the water,” McDaniel said. “Chloramine has much less of an odor and taste to it.”

While the utility acknowledges the taste of bottled water is preferred by many consumers, McDaniel said the store-bought variety and tap offer the same health benefits.

“If customers are buying bottled water because they think they need it to protect their health, they should think about that again,” he said. “There really is no health advantage. And at four gallons for a penny, tap is a better buy.”