Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
Honeywell will pay for cleaning up groundwater in San Fernando Valley
The Tujunga Spreading Grounds in the winter of 2023. LADWP is completing new treatment facilities here to help clean contaminated groundwater under the San Fernando Valley. A new agreement with Honeywell will help clean other parts of the groundwater basin.
(
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
)
A San Fernando Valley Superfund site will be cleaned up and help boost Los Angeles’ local water supply.
Listen
• 1:51
Safe drinking water: Honeywell will pay for cleaning up groundwater in San Fernando Valley
After more than a decade of negotiations, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that industrial manufacturing conglomerate Honeywell International Inc. has agreed to pay to clean up contaminated underground aquifers and build water treatment plants in North Hollywood.
The effort is expected to cost Honeywell around $57 million, plus $8 million to $12 million per year to maintain and operate the water treatment facilities, according to Honeywell.
Support for LAist comes from
The company expects to start delivering water from the treatment plants by late 2027. The EPA will oversee the cleanup.
The background
Starting in the 1940s, the EPA said Honeywell’s aerospace and chemical manufacturing predecessors leaked dangerous chemicals into San Fernando Valley groundwater. Those chemicals include cancer-causing trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene.
The agreement adds to ongoing efforts to clean up Cold War-era contamination of the city of L.A.’s largest groundwater basin, which sits under the San Fernando Valley.
A separate cleanup agreement was struck with Lockheed Martin in 2018 and the L.A. Department of Water and Power is close to finishing a $600-million project to clean the rest of the San Fernando Valley’s polluted groundwater so it’s safe enough to drink.
The orange outline shows the contaminated portion of the underground aquifer in the San Fernando Valley, which is LA city's largest groundwater basin.
(
US Environmental Protection Agency
/
LAist
)
Support for LAist comes from
What’s next
The cleanups are part of L.A.’s goals to rely less on imported water and more on local supplies in the face of increasingly severe swings between dry and wet years. Those more extreme swings are primarily being driven by human society’s burning of fossil fuels.
All together, officials say cleaning up the groundwater basin will more than double L.A.'s local water supply during average wet years and help the city store more water for use during dry years.
Currently, only about 10% of L.A.’s drinking water is sourced from local underground basins. The vast majority is piped in from the eastern and northern Sierra Nevada and the overstretched Colorado River.
Go deeper:
I drank recycled sewage water to get a taste of SoCal’s water future
Climate Emergency Questions
Fires. Mudslides. Heat waves. What questions do you need answered as you prepare for the effects of the climate emergency?
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
The union representing the restaurant's workers announced Tuesday that The Pantry will welcome back patrons Thursday after suddenly shutting down six months ago. -
If approved, the more than 62-acre project would include 50 housing lots and a marina less than a mile from Jackie and Shadow's famous nest overlooking the lake.
-
The U.S. Supreme Court lifted limits on immigration sweeps in Southern California, overturning a lower court ruling that prohibited agents from stopping people based on their appearance.
-
Censorship has long been controversial. But lately, the issue of who does and doesn’t have the right to restrict kids’ access to books has been heating up across the country in the so-called culture wars.
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity.
-
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
Best of LAist