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📅 Today's Story: Los Angeles is expanding its Van Nuys water recycling facility to produce enough purified drinking water for 500,000 residents—double the original plan—easing decades of environmental tension over water diverted from Mono Lake.
INFRASTRUCTURE
LA to 2x Recycled Water Output, Easing Pressure on Mono Lake |
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A construction crew builds a recycled water facility at a wastewater treatment plant in Van Nuys (Source: Los Angeles Times)
📰 What Happened: L.A. approved an expansion of the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, increasing capacity from 25 to 45 million gallons per day. Once complete in 2027, the project will provide a drought-proof water supply, drastically reducing the city’s dependence on water diverted from Sierra Nevada creeks that feed Mono Lake.
🔍 A Closer Look: The $930M project includes an underground expansion and a system to percolate purified water into aquifers near Hansen Dam. It’s a major shift from L.A.'s previous reliance on imported water and decades-old “toilet-to-tap” resistance. Environmental groups see it as a long-awaited restoration of Mono Lake’s ecosystem.
🧠Why It Matters: L.A.’s move to recycle more wastewater marks an inflection point in water independence as statewide droughts worsen. It also helps repair long-frayed relations with Eastern Sierra communities and environmental advocates, offering a replicable model for other California cities facing similar resource and ecological pressures.
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