DWP Proposes Filtration Systems at Area Reservoirs

To save as much as $100 million, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials have announced a proposal to take the Encino and Lower Stone Canyon reservoirs out of daily service.

Since the water would be used only in emergencies or during droughts, the decision would allow the DWP to build smaller filtration systems at each reservoir, officials said.

“It’s a marvelous result after all this hard work,” Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Feuer said Friday. “It saves ratepayers tens of millions of dollars.”

The state Department of Health Services, noting that open-water reservoirs in the Santa Monica Mountains are susceptible to contamination by animal fecal matter, had mandated the building of filtration systems, which use chemical disinfectants and a screening process to improve water quality.

The state will now consider the new proposal to build less-expensive systems, Feuer said.

The DWP is required to have the filtration projects operating in Encino by 2003 and in Lower Stone Canyon by 2005. As part of its new plan, DWP officials said, the agency will enlarge and reconfigure some pipelines at each reservoir to conserve storm-water runoff and provide storage.

If approved, construction on the smaller plants could begin in 12 to 18 months.

S. David Freeman, DWP’s general manager, said smaller filtration systems at the reservoirs will eliminate algae and the need for excessive chlorination. The plan, estimated to cost $30 million to $60 million, may save the DWP as much as $100 million, Freeman said.

With the reservoirs out of daily service, area residents would get their water from the Los Angeles Reservoir and the Los Angeles Aqueduct Filtration plant in Sylmar, officials said.

The DWP proposal will be presented to the agency’s Board of Commissioners in June. If approved, it should reach the City Council for a vote sometime this summer, Feuer said.

The two reservoirs, which provide about half the storage space for city water, are an important source for fighting fires.

The Encino Reservoir produces 1% to 2% of the city water supply but provides as much as 20% of its backup supply, according to the DWP. It can hold 3.2 billion gallons of water and serves the San Fernando Valley hillsides.

For almost a decade, residential groups have negotiated with the DWP about the fate of the reservoirs. Barbara Hand, president of the Encino Hillside Coalition, said the earlier plan was too costly for the small amount of water involved.

The new plan is the most efficient way of doing it, she said. “It’s much more practical.”

But Gerald A. Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino, said he is not convinced of the new plan’s merits and believes it may cost the city more money in the long run. “It’s a last-minute idea to change entirely the philosophy of the water system,” he said.