One Water, One Future for L.A.

New technologies, aging infrastructures and changing climates drive innovation as water utilities reshape for the future

Two parallel initiatives in the water industry promise to reshape the water management business as we know it. The U.S. Water Alliance has spearheaded the One Water movement, a shared vision of a future where there is no such thing as wasted water. Advances in water treatment science and technology, combined with growing populations, aging infrastructures, realignment of regulations, and changing climates are driving new levels of innovation in the water profession.

A separate but equally important effort is the Utility of the Future initiative. In the summer of 2013, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), the Water Environment Federation (WEF), and the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) collaborated onThe Water Resources Utility of the Future: A Blueprint for Action. This playbook recognized for the first time that a fundamental shift was taking place in the way America’s clean water utilities defined their role in society: from managers of waste to managers of valuable resources. It also added operational efficiency and sustainability to the conversation about reshaping water management.

With lines blurring between water supply, stormwater and clean water management, what might this utility of the future look like? For a preview, take a look at Los Angeles, which is on the leading edge of both initiatives.

LA Sanitation (LASAN) and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) are already ahead of the curve. Well before the state’s drought crisis, the agencies were deep into writing the city’s One Water LA 2040 Plan, an ambitious and historic effort to coordinate the work of multiple city departments and community stakeholders to achieve a sustainable water management system. The vision started in 1999 with the Water Integrated Resources Plan, a facilities management program that streamlined infrastructure planning for water, wastewater and runoff.

"We have to be prepared for multiple scenarios, with extremes of drought and flood as well as a changing climate, demographics and available technology,” says Adel Hagekhalil, assistant director for LASAN. "The One Water LA 2040 Plan will ensure that future generations of residents and ratepayers have the most reliable, cost-effective, environmentally sound, healthy water system possible,” Hagekhalil says.

The Water IRP, as the program came to be called, represents an unprecedented approach for sustainable water resources management. Its primary goals were to integrate wastewater facilities management with stormwater, recycled water and water conservation with a planning horizon from 2005 to 2020; and to enlist public stakeholders in the planning process. Adopted in 2006 with the support of hundreds of stakeholder groups, the Water IRP coordinated capital improvement programs for wastewater and stormwater infrastructures, an initial recycled water master plan, a financial plan, and a programmatic environmental impact report.

It’s safe to say that the Water IRP has been a game-changing success. Departing from traditional single‐purpose planning efforts, the Water IRP has resulted in greater efficiency in water resource management with multiple citywide benefits, including energy and cost savings, reduced dependence on imported water, reusing stormwater and conserving drinking water.

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Taxonomy

• Sustainable Economy
• Stormwater Management
• Drought
• Water Management