LA Will Double its Wastewater Recycling Capacity to Serve Half a Million Residents

Los Angeles will double the capacity of the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant to 45 million gallons per day, almost twice the original plan for the facility. 

As Ian James reports for the Los Angeles Times, this will provide water to 500,000 Angelenos and enable the city to stop taking water from mountain streams that feed Mono Lake, a ecologically significant and threatened water body more than 300 miles north of LA.

The project, slated for completion in 2027, will increase LA’s water security, providing a secure, local source of water. “The drinking water the plant produces will be piped 10 miles to a series of dirt basins that spread out beside the Hansen Dam Golf Course, where it will percolate into the soil and replenish groundwater. The water can then be pumped out by wells, and once tested and treated further, it will enter pipes and be delivered to taps.”

Notably, Los Angeles is not giving up its right to Mono Lake water, which it could still draw on during severe droughts or other emergencies.