Posts Tagged: Edith De Guzman

Water discussion on Sept. 29 flows from LA art exhibit

Edith de Guzman, shown pouring water, will participate in a panel discussion of Los Angeles water. The discussion will be followed by a blind water tasting. Photo by Shanley Kellis

Communities in Los Angeles and around California face a variety of water challenges ranging from access to clean, affordable water to water supplies threatened by a changing climate.

The public is invited to a free event featuring a panel discussion of the past, present and future of Los Angeles water. The water discussion will be part of the closing reception for the art exhibit “What's On Tap: LA's Water Story…Source to Spigot” at El Tranquilo Gallery in Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept. 29.

“I hope that people come away understanding that our relationship to and stewardship of water in LA is not only a critical part of our past history, but essential to determining our region's future as well,” said Edith B. de Guzman, UC Cooperative Extension specialist for water equity and adaptation policy with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation.

“I hope that people come away understanding that our relationship to and stewardship of water in LA is not only a critical part of our past history, but essential to determining our region's future as well,” said de Guzman.

The panel will be moderated by UCLA Public Policy Professor Megan Mullin. Panelists will include de Guzman; Amanda Begley, watershed senior program manager for TreePeople; Conner Everts, facilitator for the Environmental Water Caucus, executive director of the Southern California Watershed Alliance, and co-chair of the Desal Response Group; and Mark Gold, director of water scarcity solutions for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The discussion will be followed by a blind water tasting. Participants will be able to taste how the flavors of three brands of bottled water compare with each other and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power tap water.

“Thus far, many people have chosen LADWP tap as their favorite  compared to the bottled brands,” de Guzman said. “So another hope I have is that people will come away with greater appreciation and trust of tap water.”

Jolly de Guzman, left, and Edith curated the art exhibit, which highlights five distinct water themes that affect Southern California communities – local water, imported water, tap trust, human right to water and affordability. Photo by Shanley Kellis

The art exhibit, curated by Edith and Jolly de Guzman, highlights five distinct water themes that affect Southern California communities – local water, imported water, tap trust, human right to water and affordability.

The Zanja Madre, a Spanish-era aqueduct that moved water from the Los Angeles River to the pueblo of Los Angeles between 1781 and 1904, once ran past the gallery location.

The “What's On Tap: LA's Water Story…Source to Spigot” exhibit will be open from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday through Sunday, Sept. 27-29, with the closing reception 3-6 p.m. on Sunday, at El Tranquilo Gallery, W-19 Olvera Street, Los Angeles 90012. The panel discussion will begin at 4 p.m. The reception will include live music by Shoshana Ben-Horin.

Report: Wastewater recycling essential to resilient water future for LA region

In a new report, Edith B. de Guzman and Gregory Pierce recommend actions to increase the amount and reliability of Los Angeles County’s recycled water supplies.

Wastewater recycling in Los Angeles is the focus of a new report released by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation and the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. The report, Making the Most of Landmark Recycled Water Investments in Los Angeles: Technical Advisory Recommendations for the Region, was commissioned by Los Angeles Waterkeeper. The goal of the report is to support ongoing efforts to improve local water security and rely less on expensive, energy-intensive and increasingly unreliable water imports from faraway places, like the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the Colorado River.

Experts involved in developing the report agree that expanding the use of recycled wastewater has emerged as a key, scalable water supply strategy that can offer certainty and reliability in the region in light of our new climate reality.

“Both the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the City of LA's Department of Water and Power have made significant investments in wastewater recycling, and they plan to do more,” said Bruce Reznik, executive director of LA Waterkeeper. “But there are a lot of moving parts and some critical decisions to be made in the short term if we're going to make significant progress toward reliable local water supplies.”

“The purpose of this report is to help decisionmakers see the full picture so they can prioritize and develop informed strategies for expanding and integrating the disparate wastewater recycling projects into a more cohesive wastewater system – all while taking community voices and environmental impacts into account,” he added.

Local leaders recognize the region must further invest in equitable, climate-smart, affordable local water strategies. LA County's Water Plan, released in late 2023, calls for 80% of water to come from local sources by 2045 (compared with approximately 40% currently). Four major centralized wastewater recycling projects, including two that are landmark in size and scope, have either broken ground or are in the active planning stages throughout Los Angeles County. Collectively, this regional effort may represent the most important water supply investment in the American West in the last half century.

“In many ways, our region has taken great strides toward embracing wastewater recycling,” said report co-author Edith B. de Guzman, UC Cooperative Extension water equity and adaptation policy specialist. “But we need a clearer pathway for how these projects can be built and possibly integrated into a more cohesive system. This report provides a blueprint for water agencies on the project design, community engagement and governance steps that must be made to ensure progress toward rapidly increasing our local water independence.”

Upwards of $20 billion in investment in wastewater recycling projects is planned for the coming years. But as local water and wastewater agencies make these investments, it's essential that they design systems to both maximize benefits and minimize impacts that could be damaging to people and the environment, all while ensuring water remains affordable. Just as importantly, the report flagged the need to effectively engage the public in key decisions to foster public trust in these emerging water technologies and facilitate coordination between agencies to create a resilient regional water supply system. 

Specific action items identified in the report are organized under eight principal recommendations:

1. Take actionable steps on current key decision points pertaining to major recycling facilities. The report encourages agencies to make several decisions that will impact the design of the overall wastewater recycling systems imminently. These include resolving differences between the City of LA's Hyperion 2035 and Operation NEXT efforts, deciding whether to upgrade existing wastewater recycling infrastructure like the Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility, and making key pipeline and routing decisions.
2. Conduct a more nuanced regional analysis of system facilities, with an emphasis on evaluating distributed alternatives. While some assessment of a more distributed system has been undertaken, additional analysis is still needed on the issues of energy demand, the cost of distributing water under different alternatives, and impacts on aquatic and marine ecosystems.
3. Identify and establish a structure for collaborative governance that enables agencies to work together to realize a regional advanced wastewater recycling network.
4. Adopt a coordinated monitoring plan to ensure water quality is safeguarded for public and ecological health.
5. Balance the adoption of Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR) and Direct Potable Reuse (DPR) with a near-term focus on IPR to the extent feasible and using DPR to fill in service gaps.
6. Perform robust regional forecast and impact analyses to improve future-proofing of facility and network designs, maximize benefits, minimize harm, and avoid stranded assets.
7. Design and execute a collaborative communication and community engagement strategy that offers a clear narrative, emphasizes the benefits of a secure water supply, meets the needs of water customers, and is delivered by trusted messengers.
8. Coordinate across agencies on strategies to attract project financing while taking household affordability into account.

“This report is by no means the final word,” said co-author Gregory Pierce, research and co-executive director at UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. “The point of this study is to provide guidance and spur discussion, and we hope and expect to see ongoing research and coordination on all of these issues.”

The report was informed by input from a Technical Advisory Committee of 20 people from fields including academia and think tanks, conservation advocacy, labor, the private sector, and current and former water district leaders not affiliated with the projects that are the focus of the report. This effort also benefited from the feedback and insight of more than 20 public agency representatives, including many from the City of Los Angeles (including Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and LA Sanitation and Environment), Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, and West Basin Municipal Water District. 

The full report is available at https://innovation.luskin.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Making-the-Most-of-Landmark-Recycled-Water-Investments-in-LA.pdf.

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