The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power invites the public to attend a presentation of their Draft Stormwater Capture Master Plan on Thursday, January 22. Throughout the past year, LADWP held public meetings and solicited input and ideas for improving stormwater capture throughout the city, identifying numerous ways to capture every precious drop of water through methods including green streets outfitted with infiltration systems, permeable pavement, improved dams and spreading grounds that replenish groundwater basins, pocket parks, and rain barrels and cisterns.
Today, only 12% of L.A.’s water supplies come from local sources. Most of the water is imported from the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta and the Colorado River, which is expensive and increasingly scarce due to the statewide drought. Although we previously designed our system of storm drains and channels to quickly capture rainfall, move it away from streets, and direct it to the ocean, the city now sees rainwater capture as a key component of enhancing our local water supply. The Stormwater Capture Master Plan initiative will help boost our local water supplies and reduce our reliance on water from other sources.
One inch of rain can produce 1,000 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot is equal to 326,000 gallons of water, enough to supply two households with water for a year. Currently, the city captures about 27,000 acre-feet of water, which is used to recharge our groundwater supplies. By 2099, the SCMP aims to collect between 170,000 and 280,000 acre-feet.
Date: Thursday, January 22
Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Location: Vic Alicia Broadous-Duncan Center
11300 Glenoaks Boulevard, Pacoima, CA 91331
