LA Considers Large-Scale Water Recycling Plan

Photo by aussiegall via Flickr

Today LA will be taking another look at a water recycling program that could help the city become not only more efficient in usage but lead us towards freedom from costly and precious state-level water sources. Currently, 80% of our city's water is imported.

The LA Times reports that this plan "would invest in projects to capture and store rainfall and clean up a sprawling, contaminated water supply beneath the San Fernando Valley. About $1 billion would be allocated for reclamation, including a politically sensitive plan to use treated wastewater to recharge underground drinking supplies serving the Valley, Los Feliz and the Eastside."

Although the proposal seems focused on changes that will be implemented at the city level, the plan does require residents to make changes in their every day life as well by putting restrictions on things like lawn watering and car washing. Some are already skeptical about the plan, recalling an abandoned effort in the 1990s that had many thinking it was a "'toilet-to-tap' scheme." The reality is, however, that most of our water is in some way not "new" and that this plan will allow Los Angeles to address multiple concerns like our rampant wasting of water, our dependence on importing water, and a demand for water that is projected to continue rising up to 15% in the next 20 years.