L.A. to Pay $20.8 Million for Discharging 12 Million Gallons of Sewage into Santa Monica Bay
In deal with federal prosecutors, city officials agree to clean up sewage plants connected to 2021 spill, even as waste water continues to flow into the ocean
Aug 20, 2024
Venice Beach Lifeguard tower
In a plea deal with federal prosecutors, L.A. officials will pay millions to address repeated problems at the city's sewage treatment center, which has sent untold millions of gallons of untreated waste into waters around popular public beaches
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The City of Los Angeles has agreed to pay a total of $20.8 million to fix issues at the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant after a 2021 spill spiraled millions of gallons of wastewater into Santa Monica Bay.
The agreement hammered out between the city and the federal government does not address recent spills that have shuttered popular L.A. beaches multiple times this summer. Los Angeles reported in May that there were 71 reported incidents of untreated waste water spills that have contaminated the Pacific Ocean.
“We in Southern California love our beaches and people in our community deserve clean waters free of contamination when they visit the beach,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “This agreement requires the City to take concrete steps and commit substantial funds to improving the Hyperion facility and thereby prevent a disaster like this from reoccurring. Our office is committed to protecting our environment and we will continue to use our federal authority to ensure the safe use of our natural resources for future generations.”
In July 2021, the city's treatment center "became inundated with debris, causing wastewater to flood that area," prosecutors say. As a result, "Hyperion’s relief system was triggered and approximately 12.5 million gallons of untreated wastewater was discharged through the Facility’s 1-Mile Outfall into the Santa Monica Bay."
The result was catastrophic for the environment after "quality testing and monitoring subsequently conducted around the 5-Mile Outfall showed exceedances of applicable water quality standards for total coliform bacteria, E. coli, and Enterococcus," prosecutors say. The incident led to a criminal investigation by Estrada's office.
In the plea deal, the City has agreed to spend no less than $20 million to perform and complete various projects at Hyperion, which the City agreed to perform under an Administrative Order On Consent previously issued by the EPA, but was seemingly ignored.
That work includes improvements on Hyperion’s Distributed Control System, such as integrating bar screens, level sensors and other ancillary equipment, integrating the alarm or status screens software to remove the antiquated alarms, training Hyperion operators responsible for control room operations on the updates, and constructing high-level channel overflow manage improvements.
In addition, the City has agreed to continue and expand upon its water quality testing program in compliance with its permits and will add two additional water quality testing sites between Dockweiler Beach and King Harbor and to commit to increasing numbers of bacteria testing at other beaches.
https://lamag.com/news/l-a-to-pay-20-8-million-for-discharging-12-million-gallons-of-sewage-into-santa-monica-bay