Massive and reoccurring floods had plagued the region since the first Europeans arrived; and in fact back to prehistoric days. The area we now call Playa Del Rey, for instance, was mostly under water; except for the Bluff areas. It was an ancient embayment that flowed about 7 miles from the ocean to the Baldwin Hills. It was fed by water running off the hills through the former Los Angeles River; now called Ballona Creek. When the explorer Juan Cabrillo arrived in October 1542, there was so much fresh water flowing in to the Pacific, that his crew could haul the water onboard with buckets, as the sweet water floated on-top of the sea water.

The point of this? As the map demonstrates, no one in LA was worried about water reclamation in 1920. They worried about the devastating floods. Their solution, not having the technology that we have today, was to channelize the creeks and rivers, and send the water out to sea. Although some of it of course runs into great underground aquifers, and thereby replenishes long term supply, well over 90% simply runs into the ocean.

There are millions of gallons of fresh water that can be reclaimed for drinking water and general use. We have the technology to purify this water, and make a huge dent in the ongoing water crisis. We could also remove the many toxic harmful pollutants that enter the ocean unchecked.

If ALL we did was to reclaim this resource to water our many golf courses and public lands, the results would be staggering, and would forever change the area we call, Our Town.

I hear this growth = prosperity parroted constantly. If that was true I guess LA would be the richest city in California.

As far as the water issue, I’ve been attending LA Sanitation meetings and when they talk about “conveyance infrastructure” they mean pipelines, advanced treatment plants, etc.

Santa Clarita has a proposal on the table for estimated $500,000 million to treat chlorides and recycle wastewater just for two plants.

Expensive advanced treatment technologies are being pushed to “create” new water supply by “recycling” wastewater. Toilet to tap is the future and the state is behind it 100%. The problem is it’s too costly.