The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power poured 600 million gallons of good drinking water down the drain in 2008. The DWP has also been trying to make the public believe it is acting responsibly in times of drought.
The deed was done in January to March 2008. The DWP pulled the plugs on both Silver Lake Reservoir, sending 550 million gallons into the Pacific Ocean via Ballona Creek, and Elysian Reservoir, with 50 million gallons via the Los Angeles River.
The DWP had a rationale for wasting the 600 million gallons. But in the process it did not even try to find a better option for the public’s benefit, or enlist the public’s help.
The story starts with the DWP regularly measuring 200 substances that might appear in the water supply – from antimony to zinc. The California Department of Public Health has set maximum concentration levels for these substances under various theories, even though these maximums are not required to cause any detectable injury to anyone. We should note that nearly 99 percent of tap water goes down the drain or onto landscaping. The amount actually drunk by individuals is likely less than one quart daily.
The DWP got alarmed in November 2007 about a situation with the substance bromate. It found more than the arbitrary maximum of one part per 100 million in Silver Lake and Elysian reservoirs. The reality is that one part per 100 million is not dangerous to anyone, and the DWP knew it. Nobody was ever reported as injured by bromates over the several weeks of public consumption prior to detection.
Nevertheless, the DWP went for the expensive bureaucratic mindless fix first: just drain away the problem regardless of cost or drought.
David Nahai, DWP then-chief executive general manager, expressed this course of action in a letter to the California Regional Water Quality Control Board in January 2008: “We feel strongly that the decision to dispose of this water, even during time of potential water shortages, is the most prudent decision to make at this time.”
However, a staff memo from December said plainly: “There is no immediate health risk.”
The DWP board at the time consisted of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointees Nick Patsaouras, Edith Ramirez, Forescee Hogan-Rowles, Wally Knox and Barbara Moschos.
The DWP didn’t protest the arbitrary low concentration and ask for new rule-making by the state to revise the limit upward. In the meantime, the DWP could have kept the 600 million gallons of safe water for eventual public use.
The DWP didn’t think about reducing the concentration of bromate below the one part per 100 million by mixing it with easily available very low level bromate water from the Owens Valley. The DWP didn’t think of any simple chemical treatment process to remove the bromate. The DWP just decided to throw tens of millions of dollars down the drain with the water.
As the water was being wasted into the flood-control channels, another bureaucratic absurdity entered. The water was headed for the ocean, so the DWP turned to extra regulations. These asserted that fresh, clean-filtered water with a little suspended dirt from the bottom of the reservoir would contaminate the ocean. This is not a misprint. The DWP measured the water daily for these “contaminants” and had to treat it to prevent such “contamination.” We all know that the Los Angeles River and Ballona Creek drain all sorts of water to the sea all the time. Under this same regime, maybe the Los Angeles County Flood Control District should be required to plug these two flood-control channels all the time so the regular flood water can be “properly” treated before heading for the ocean.
In June 2008, after the two reservoirs were drained, they were refilled by June with Owens River water with no problem with the bromate levels.
Something has got to be done. The DWP board should conduct a public hearing. It needs to explain itself in this situation, to propose a revision upward of the bromate concentration to a realistic figure, and to review the regulation that calls tap water as an ocean contaminant.
The California State Board of Public Health should also hold a hearing on the bromate nonproblem. It should justify the current bromate level with actual medical forensic evidence of any harm at the level of one part per 100 million for an average person consuming under a quart a day. Then it should immediately work on the arbitrary limits on the other 199 substances with similar questionable rationales.
Until then, it’s just more taxpayer and ratepayer money down the drain. The public needs a better hold over the DWP.
Carl Olson is a college accounting instructor who heads two public policy groups. He lives in Woodland Hills.
