The Board authorized construction of the Woodman Avenue Multi-Beneficial Stormwater Capture Project through a Memorandum of Agreement between the Los Angeles Department of Public Works Bureaus of Sanitation (BOS) and Street Services and The River Project. The project will build several sidewalk and median improvements, including a vegetated infiltration swale and underground pre-treatment and retention/infiltration systems, along Woodman Avenue in the San Fernando Valley. The proposed improvements, which are expected to be completed in November 2012, will capture runoff from a surrounding area of approximately 130 acres and serve as a demonstration project to illustrate innovative techniques and emerging technologies on stormwater capture and recharge.

Also approved today was the purchase of property in Pacoima, which will serve as the future location of the LADWP Water System’s Garber Street Recycled Water Tank Project. The property is necessary to further expand the Department’s “purple pipe” system in the San Fernando Valley. The site will provide the elevation needed for the tanks to maintain system pressure to serve current and future recycled water customers, the Valley’s Hansen Dam Golf Course among them.

Additional expansion of the recycled water system came with the approval of an agreement between the Department, BOS and the West Basin Municipal Water District for expanded recycled water services to the Los Angeles Harbor Area. Through this agreement, LADWP will fund up to $112 million for the design, construction and operation of new and existing facilities necessary to produce and convey 9,300 acre-feet of recycled water per year to LADWP’s large industrial and irrigation customers.  By using recycled water the project will save enough drinking water to serve nearly 19,000 LA households for a year.  Recycled water customers in the Los Angeles Harbor area are currently being served under an existing agreement involving the three agencies, which was amended today to increase the amount of recycled water produced and served to customers in the area.

In May 2008, LADWP and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a Water Supply Action Plan, “Securing L.A.’s Water Supply,” that identified enhancing stormwater capture and expanding recycled water use as two of several long-term strategies to ensure a sustainable water supply. Other strategies include increasing water conservation, accelerating cleanup of the local groundwater basin and expanding groundwater storage.

LADWP is currently preparing the 2010 Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP), which will outline the City’s long-term water resources management strategy. The public is invited to hear an overview of the LADWP Water System’s strategic priorities and preview the draft 2010 UWMP at two upcoming workshops scheduled for February 3 and 9.  Public input received from the workshops will be considered for the final 2010 UWMP, to be presented for adoption by the LADWP Board of Commissioners in May 2011.

Each of the projects approved by the Board of Water and Power Commissioners is in line with the Plan’s objective to develop Los Angeles’ local water supply and reduce the city’s dependence on expensive imported water.

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