Los Angeles Sustainable Water Project: Ballona Creek Watershed (Full Report)
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UCLA Recent Work Title Los Angeles Sustainable Water Project: Ballona Creek Watershed (Full Report) Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8s37c04z Authors Gold, Mark Hogue, Terri Pincetl, Stephanie et al. Publication Date 2015-11-01 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 4.0 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California LOS ANGELES SUSTAINABLE WATER PROJECT: BALLONA CREEK WATERSHED This report is a product of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA Sus- tainable LA Grand Challenge, and Colorado School of Mines. AUTHORS Mark Gold, Terri Hogue, Stephanie Pincetl, Katie November 2015 Mika, Katie Radavich ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was supported by the City of Los UCLA Grand Challenges, Sustainable LA Angeles Bureau of Sanitation (LASAN). Many 2248 Murphy Hall thanks to LASAN for providing ideas and direc- Los Angeles, CA 90005-1405 tion, facilitating meetings and data requests, as well as sharing the many previous and current research efforts that provided us with invaluable UCLA Institute of the Environment and information on which to build. Further, LASAN Sustainability provided edits which helped to deepen and im- La Kretz Hall, Suite 300 prove this report. Any findings, opinions, or con- Box 951496 clusions are those of the authors and do not neces- Los Angeles, CA 90095-1496 sarily reflect those of LASAN. Colorado School of Mines 1500 Illinois Street We would like to acknowledge Drew Beck for the Golden, CO 80401 initial development of the Ballona Creek Water- shed model and Ryan Edgley for help and assis- tance on this project. We would further like to acknowledge the many organizations which facili- tated this research through providing data, con- versations, and insights into the integrated water management world in the Los Angeles region: LADWP, LACDPW, LARWQCB, LACFCD, WRD, WBMWD, MWD, SCCWRP, the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, and many others. 1 | LA Sustainable Water Project: Ballona Creek Watershed Contents Contents .................................................................................................................................... 1 Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Executive Summary .................................................................................................................. 5 Background ............................................................................................................................. 12 I. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 12 A. Regulatory, Legal, and Policy Background ................................................................ 14 a. Regional .................................................................................................................. 14 b. City of Los Angeles ................................................................................................ 15 B. Ballona Creek Watershed Study Area ........................................................................ 18 a. Ballona Study Area and Geography ....................................................................... 18 b. Hydrology of the Ballona Creek Watershed ........................................................... 19 c. Ballona Creek Watershed Policies, Plans, and Regulations ................................... 22 C. Hyperion Service Area and Groundwater Basins ....................................................... 25 II. Dry Weather Urban Runoff and Stormwater Runoff ..................................................... 28 A. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 28 B. Water Quality Regulations ......................................................................................... 28 a. Metals TMDL Background ..................................................................................... 28 b. Overview of Additional TMDLs ............................................................................ 30 C. Stormwater Metals TMDL modeling ......................................................................... 32 a. Modeling Selection and Comparison ...................................................................... 32 b. SUSTAIN Model Setup, Calibration, Validation ................................................... 33 c. BMP Technologies in SUSTAIN............................................................................ 37 d. BMP Scenarios for TMDL Compliance ................................................................. 39 e. Cost Background ..................................................................................................... 46 f. Modeling Results .................................................................................................... 47 D. Additional Routes to Compliance............................................................................... 60 a. Water Effect Ratio Analysis ................................................................................... 60 b. Zinc Compliance Investigation ............................................................................... 62 c. Street Sweeping ...................................................................................................... 64 d. In-Channel BMPs.................................................................................................... 66 E. Water management implications ................................................................................ 67 III. Groundwater ............................................................................................................... 70 2 | UCLA IoES, UCLA GC, C S M N o v e m b e r 2015 A. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 70 B. Groundwater Basins Underlying Ballona Creek Watershed ...................................... 70 a. West Coast Basin .................................................................................................... 70 b. Central Basin ........................................................................................................... 73 c. Santa Monica Basin ................................................................................................ 74 d. Hollywood Basin .................................................................................................... 76 C. Possible approaches to increase local groundwater production ................................. 77 a. Increasing Storage & Extraction in West & Central Basins ................................... 78 b. Remediating Legacy Saltwater Plume in West Basin............................................. 84 c. Exploring Opportunities in Santa Monica and Hollywood Basins ......................... 84 IV. Wastewater and Recycled Water ................................................................................ 90 A. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 90 B. Recycled Water Policies and Regulations .................................................................. 92 C. Current conditions ...................................................................................................... 94 D. Possibilities ............................................................................................................... 104 a. Increasing Advanced Water Treatment ................................................................ 104 b. Satellite Treatment Plants ..................................................................................... 112 c. Expanding Non-Potable Reuse. ............................................................................ 113 d. Increasing Volume of Runoff Flows to HTP for Treatment and Reuse. .............. 119 e. Direct Potable Reuse. ............................................................................................ 121 V. Conservation and On-Site Reuse as Local Water Supply ............................................ 122 A. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 122 B. Conservation ............................................................................................................. 122 C. On-site Capture and Reuse (Distributed Systems) ................................................... 125 D. Local Water Supply Conditions and Goals .............................................................. 129 VI. Overall Conclusions ................................................................................................. 135 VII. Appendix A: Monthly HTP Effluent concentrations. ............................................... 138 3 | LA Sustainable Water Project: Ballona Creek Watershed Abstract Implementing integrated water management systems (IWM) that incorporate all components of the urban water cycle, including imported water, local groundwater, captured stormwater, greywater, and treated wastewater is crucial to creating a sustainable water supply for the city of Los Angeles (City). Rapid and effective implementation of IWM is made even more necessary given the current drought conditions in California; this report explores opportunities and chal- lenges to implementing