Evan Finlay - Sanitation in Los Angeles

I spoke with Margaret, a member of the Board of The Sanitation District for Los Angeles County. This organization deals with all things pertaining to sanitation and I spoke with Margaret about the majors concerns that are occurring.

1.     One of the largest landfills in the world is in Los Angeles County. It is called the Puente Hills Landfill (above). Margaret informed me that this landfill is being filled to capacity. It took a long time to find a new location for the landfill because no city wants to have a landfill in their city. They have since decided to transport their waste by rail to the high desert. It was a tough decision because they had to charge more because the waste needs to be transferred even farther.

2.     The lack of water in Los Angeles has always been a large problem.  One thing that the Sanitation District deals with is water reclamation. They take sewage from around the county and turn it back to drinkable water. This reclaimed water is called gray water, and even though it is okay to drink it has a bad stigma attached to it.  This water is there, fore reused in watering parks and other situations when water is not drunk. They have figured out how to reuse water and save potable water for other purposes.

3.     During the sanitation of the water, there is a tremendous amount of raw sewage that is left over. The county of Los Angeles is left with the problem of trying to find places that are willing take this potential fertilizer. The Central Valley of California once took the mulch, but they are now resistant to take Los Angeles’ trash even though they get paid for it. This is an incredible process, changing sewage to clean water, but there are some difficulties involved with it.

4.     Because of the great amount of water that is being used by the population in the LA county area, and the decrease in the amount of water being supplied due to water rights problems, the water table is dropping. With the water table dropping, some parts of the underground water table are being infiltrated by the ocean water that is seeping in. Los Angeles is having to pump water into the ground in order to stop the ocean water from coming.

5.     This organization is constantly discharges a lot of the reclaimed water directly into the ocean. A research vessel is constantly taking samples and observing animal populations on the California coast. This is done to ensure that the water that is dispelled does not endanger the wildlife or the beach goers. This was instituted when DDT became a problem with the pelicans and when fin erosion plagued some of the bottom dwellers. They have seen these come back, but they still keep their eyes on them.