The Kiewit-Stantec design-build team recently completed its basis of design report, which outlines treatment technology that will be used to treat contaminated groundwater as well as provide the basis for the treatment facility layout at LADWP's North Hollywood Central and Tujunga remediation sites.
The SFB covers 226sq miles and is northwest of downtown Los Angeles on the north side of the Hollywood Hills. However, the basin is one of the largest contaminated groundwater areas in the US. The US$400 million projects by Kiewit-Stantec will remove existing industrial contaminants that date back to the 1940s in the SFB.
At the same time, these systems will allow LADWP to treat contaminated groundwater in the vicinity of the North Hollywood Central and Tujunga pump stations, providing up to 200 and 100cu ft of water per second, respectively.
LADWP is completing these two projects pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).
The remediation of the SFB advances two key goals of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's Green New Deal — significantly reducing the purchase of imported water by 2025 and producing 71 per cent of LA's water supply locally by 2035. Once fully restored, the SFB will be an aquifer that can provide drinking water to more than 800,000 Angelenos.
Currently, local groundwater provides approximately 11 per cent of the city's total water supply. It has provided more than 20 per cent of the city's total supply in some drought years. The city gets most of its water from the Los Angeles Aqueduct—which is Eastern Sierra snowmelt—and from the California Aqueduct, which is water from the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta.
"We're excited to participate in this important step toward delivering a greater supply of local water to Los Angeles and its residents," said Venu Kolli, Stantec senior principal and water area manager based in Pasadena. "LA has great water resources underground. These projects will help the city tap into that water, providing residents and businesses with local resources and reducing our community's dependence on imported water."
"We are very excited to be working on these important projects with the City," said Tony Joyce, vice president, Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. "With our long construction history in southern California, we take great pride in bringing our extensive design-build experience to help make a positive impact on those living in and visiting the region."
When completed, the projects will treat and deliver up to 75 million gallons of water per day. They are scheduled to be operational by mid-2022. Stantec is providing process, civil, mechanical, building mechanical, structural, architectural, landscape architectural, and instrumentation and control engineering design services on the projects. Kiewit is providing electrical engineering design services and managing all construction activities.
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