Improved and recently reopened Echo Park in Los Angeles, CA

It was wonderful to see the iconic lotuses back at Echo Park’s lake. After a stroll on the park this weekend it was certainly reassuring to see that efforts put on improving the lake are bringing a positive change to the Los Angeles’ landmark, its community, and the environment.

The landscape surrounding the lake is sprucing up significantly, flowers are back and blooming. The once murky waters are much cleaner thanks to several water quality improvement measures, including wetlands planted in the basin, a new watertight liner, a recirculation system, an aeration system, and hydrodynamic separator that treat the lake before it enters the lake.

Here are some photos I took on June 23, 2013.

We live in interesting times! Technology is continuously reshaping the way we work. - GIS, CAD, Civil 3D, BIM

Advances in applications of engineering software for civil projects are reshaping the industry continuously. They are truly an element building block of infrastructure design and efficiency.

I have been working hard on keeping myself up to date with these advances in technology, taking classes at various educational institutions in Los Angeles area and /or acquiring self-taught knowledge / skills. Here are some examples of my efforts (photos included): GIS, Architectural CAD, Civil 3D, Building Information Modelers.

Southern California’s Management and Distribution of Drinking Water: - A summary of facts from the largest wholesaler of water in Southern California 

The Metropolitan Water District (MWD)

1. Created in 1928 under authority of the Metropolitan Water District Act (California Statutes 1927, Chapter 429). The act authorizes Metropolitan to: levy property taxes within its service area; establish water rates; impose charges for water standby and service availability, incur general obligations bonded indebtedness and issue revenue bonds, notes and short-term revenue certificates; execute contracts; and exercise the power of eminent domain for the purpose of acquiring property.
2. Its main purpose is to provide supplemental supply of water for domestic and municipal uses at whole sale rates to its member public agencies.
3. Its mission is to provide its service area with adequate and reliable supplies of high quality water to meet present and future needs in an environmentally and economically responsible way.
4. Comprises 26 member public agencies, 14 of those consisting of cities, 11 municipal water districts, and one county water authority. Its service area comprises approximately 5,200 sq miles and includes portions of the six counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura with a combined population of approximately 18 million.
5. Governed by a 37-member Board of Directors with each member agency having at least one representative on the board.
6. Provides 40 to 60 percent of the water used within its service area in any year.
7. It has two principal water sources, the State Water Project (SWP) in Northern California, via the California Aqueduct and the Colorado River, via the Colorado River aqueduct.
8. The State Water Project (SWP) facilities are owned and operated by the Department of Water Resources (DWR). Twenty-nine agencies have entered into contracts with DWR to receive water from the SWP. 
9. The SWP under a 100 percent allocation provides Metropolitan 1,911,500 acre-feet of water. (An acre-foot is the amount of water that will cover one acre to a depth of one foot and equals approximately 326,000 gallons, which represents the needs of two average families in and around the home for one year.)
10. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has altered the operations of the State Water Project (SWP) to accommodate species of fish listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) such as the Delta Smelt, Chinook Salmon, Sturgeon, & Steelhead. These changes in project operations have adversely affected water contracts and resulted in significant reduction of SWP water deliveries. Operational constraints likely will continue until long-term solutions to the problems in the Bay-Delta are identified and implemented.
11. The Colorado River is Metropolitan’s original source of water. The Colorado River Aqueduct, which is owned and operated by Metropolitan conveys up to 1.25 million acre-feet of water per year to Metropolitan’s member agencies.
12. Same as the SWP, the Colorado River deliveries can be affected by environmental regulations among other considerations. A number of species listed under the ESA such as the bonytail chub, razorback sucker, willow flycatcher and clapper rail can adversely affect water deliveries to accommodate for the survival of these species.
13. Metropolitan also faces a number of challenges in providing reliable water supply for Southern California. Consumer demand and locally supplied water vary from year to year, resulting in variability in water sales. In recent years supplies and demands have been affected by drought, population growth, water use restrictions, economic conditions, weather conditions and environmental laws, and judicial decisions. Future water sales will be subject to variability due to these and other factors.
14. Recent drought conditions and court-ordered restrictions in connection with the State Water Project have placed additional limitations on Metropolitan’s ability to obtain and deliver water supplies to its member agencies.
15. Metropolitan, its member agencies, sub-agencies, and groundwater basin managers developed an Integrated Water Resources Plan (“IRP”) as long term planning guideline for resources and capital investments. The IRP strategy identifies a balance of local and imported water resources within Metropolitan’ service area. Several components of the IRP strategy include water conservation, recycled water, conjunctive use, water transfers and exchanges, groundwater recovery, seawater desalination, others.
16. Water rates are established by a majority of the voting power of the Board. Metropolitan’s water rates are not subject to regulation by the Public Utilities Commission of California, or by any other state, local, or Federal agency.
17. Metropolitan’s internal water distribution includes 14 dams and reservoirs, five regional treatment plants, over 800 miles of transmission pipelines, feeders and canals and 16 hydroelectric plants.
18.  Metropolitan’s storage capacity, which includes reservoirs, conjunctive use and other groundwater storage programs within Metropolitan’s service area, is approximately 5.54 million acre-feet. In 2011, approximately 626,000 acre-feet of stored water was emergency sotorage that was reserved for use in the event of supply interruptions from earthquakes or similar emergencies, as well as extended droughts. Metropolitan’s emergency storage requirement is establish periodically to provide a six- month water supply at 75 percent of member agencies retail demand under normal hydrologic conditions.
19. Effective storage management is dependent on having sufficient years of excess supplies to store water so that it can be used during times of shortage.

To learn more about the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California visit http://www.mwdh2o.com/

Water & Wastewater Educational Videos

Great educational videos published by Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) regarding Water and Wastewater processes. http://vimeo.com/33421722

Awesome/easy way to understand all stages and technology required to provide clean/safe/reliable water to the population and to remove contaminants/nutrients from wastewater prior releasing it back to the environment.

RCAP Copy rights --- http://www.rcap.org

Drinking your toilet flush …Absolutely! Look at the Future of Potable Water.

Have you ever wondered what happens to the water flushed from your toilet, a shower, or your laundry?

All wastewater flows through your plumbing system into the main sewage collection (a network of pipes buried under the streets) where it is conveyed by gravity to a treatment facility for pollutants removal prior discharge to a body of water (river, lake, ocean, etc.)

At the treatment plant, sewage goes through a series of treatment processes designed to improve the quality of the water. The best available technologies in past allowed for a degree of water quality suitable only for discharge back into nature with the expectation of causing the least hazard to the environment. However in the latest decades, Advanced Water Treatment (AWT) has reached such sophistication that sewage can be transformed to the highest quality of purified drinking water suitable for consumption by the population within few hours after flushing one’s toilet.

Now, you may ask, why would I like to drink “cleaned” sewage? Factors such as population growth, climate change, and scarce water supply are forcing many communities to rethink and diversify their water portfolio. One way to achieve some “water security” is to implement Direct Potable Reuse (DPR – Wastewater treated to highly purified levels) and buffer existing water resources.

What about community acceptance and the “yuck” factor?

Get over it, adopt a broader view of the role water must play in the environment, and think sustainability. Most interesting, our water bodies receives fertilizers, pesticides from agricultural uses, all pollutants washed off in a rain event from urban areas, excrement from all source of warm blooded animals, etc. and this is the water anyhow, after treatment and contaminant removals we all already drink when it reaches our faucets.

From Wastewater to Drinking Water - The technology is efficient

Mapping “Geysers” and “Sinkholes” in Los Angeles Area – How reliable are our pipelines?

Los Angeles Water Main Breaks (click this link to see the map)

Southern California Public Radio is mapping water main breaks in the Los Angeles area. Since Sept. 1, SCPR has reports from the Department of Water and Power of 124 water main breaks, averaging at least one break per day in September and October of 2009.

Water mains breaks in Los Angeles area
September-October 2009 (64 breaks)
November-December 2009 (23 breaks)
January-February 2010 (23 breaks)
March-April 2010 (7 breaks)
May-June 2010 (7 breaks)

http://cbs2.com/local/southern.California.water.2.1630963.html





http://news.ninemsn.com.au/glance/859739/firetruck-swallowed-by-sinkhole

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/05/universal-studios-water-main-break-spews-into-los-angeles-river.html

Follow there are few interesting quotes extracted from an article published by the Water Efficiency (Journal for Water Resource Management).
http://www.waterefficiency.net/july-august-2010/effective-pipe-solutions.aspx

“The widespread failure of water main pipelines in the US continues to make headlines and provide a focal point for worries about the country’s infrastructure problems.”

“The problem is that when you under price water, you tend to devalue the overall treatment by the public, and they tend to waste it. So, the utility doesn’t get enough revenue to keep the system repaired, and it breaks down. Then people value it even less, and when you get to the end of all this, the whole system can break down.”

“Further damage to public perception is in the sensationalistic headlines about the cost of fixing the nation’s infrastructure. “It needs to be a local issue.” We made a lot of mistakes by making water a trillion-dollar issue. That may be true, but it is the quickest way to inspire inaction because nobody can deal with a figure like a trillion. If we brought it down to a manageable local level, it would be different.”

“The truth is, water mains break for a variety of reasons all the time, everywhere.” “We are reaching the end of the useful life of many of these systems, and a lot of utilities haven’t been replacing them. If the proper maintenance isn’t done on a regular basis, it just gets bigger and bigger.

Is there a new break near you?
Visit http://www.scpr.org/in/questions/Crumbling