Just days after federal officials announced drastic water cuts from the drought-stricken Colorado River for California, Nevada and Arizona,
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and LA City Councilmember Adrin Nazarian joined other officials and community leaders to mark the completion of two groundwater treatment plants in North Hollywood.
The new facilities – North Hollywood Central (NHC) and North Hollywood West (NHW) – will treat up to 43 million gallons of water daily from the San Fernando Groundwater Basin to help supply safe drinking water for LA and San Fernando Valley residents. A third water treatment plant – the Tujunga Well Field Facility in Sun Valley – is currently slated for completion in 2027.
“Today is about … delivering results; it’s about meeting the moment to protect our city, our people and our planet,” said Bass during the Aug. 24 ribbon-cutting and commissioning event at the NHC facility. “While the impact of the climate crisis is local, so, too, are the solutions. These state-of-the-art facilities will help us … [reduce] our dependence on imported water and [launch] us forward to meet our bold climate goals.”
All three facilities are part of the LA Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP) San Fernando Valley Groundwater Remediation Program, which will clean up industrial pollution from the local aquifer. A large, natural underground water reservoir, the San Fernando Groundwater Basin previously served as an important source of local groundwater. But from the 1940s to the 1970s, the aerospace and heavy manufacturing industries in the valley contaminated the groundwater.
Despite the eventual departure of the aerospace industry and many manufacturing companies, the contamination remained. Utilizing three water treatment plants in the valley will make the basin safe for water storage, according to LADWP. The remediation program is one of the city’s biggest investments in local water infrastructure projects, with a total cost of $692 million. The California State Water Resources Control Board contributed $308 million via Prop 1 grant funds.
“Right now, we’re importing more than 70 percent of our water. That’s expensive, and you can see it in your water and power bill,” said Nazarian, who chairs the council’s Energy and Environment Committee.
He said they plan to flip that percentage to meet the mayor’s Climate Action Plan goal – for LA and the valley to get 70 percent of its water from local sources, including groundwater, by 2035.
“The three groundwater treatment facilities we’re opening in my district will replenish our groundwater and help us meet that goal, because nothing is more important than knowing that clean, affordable water will be there when you turn on the tap,” added Nazarian, who represents LA City Council District 2, which spans from eastern Studio City to Van Nuys to Sun Valley.
When all three facilities are operational, they will be able to extract and treat a combined total of approximately 92 million gallons of water per day, enough to supply water for up to 400,000 homes across LA and the valley each year, reducing the current reliance on imported water.
The remediation program is a significant step toward water independence, according to Nazarian. This is especially important given the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s newly-announced plan for California, Nevada and Arizona to collectively reduce water consumption from the Colorado River by 1.25 million acre-feet annually for two years, with possible larger cuts on the horizon.
“Investments like this … secure water so that we are [more] self-reliant and protect the environment as well, because it’s a challenge when you’re constantly thinking of ways of bringing water in from everywhere else,” said Nazarian. “When [most] of our water is coming from either the north or the east, we are always under the threat of being beholden to negotiations [with] others. With projects like this, we take that away and we secure our future.”