Water Sustainability in Los Angeles County

Published: 5/1/2018

Finding new water sources is necessary for reaching Sustainable Los Angeles’s goal of complete water independence by 2050. One new source could be recycled water from wastewater treatment plants because this is a huge largely untapped resource that can be used to help reach this goal. There are several problems with this such as requiring more treatment so the water would be safe to use and the preconceived notion that the public does not want to use this because it came from wastewater at one point. The way to get around this is not to use this water as drinking water, but use it for other ways such as for golf courses. This project should help reduce Los Angeles' dependence on foreign water by using a new local source. Through GIS we can better figure out how where this recycled water can be used without causing public uproar that it once came from raw sewage.

By creating a map showing different land uses, we can further identify where the recycled water could be used (e.g. irrigation, urban, landscape). The results will then be compared to maps showing water resource distribution which includes, surface water, groundwater, and rainfall distribution. Using the various maps created, we will find the potential places for using recycled water, and give priority to the places that need recycled water the most. These results will yield an action plan for the county that may help reach Sustainable Los Angeles’s goal of water independence by 2050.