Los Angeles (CNN) – While the atmospheric river this week drenched Southern California with record rains, some water managers have been busy capturing some of that runoff to save for the dry days ahead. Others were busy averting environmental disaster.
Los Angeles County Public Works captured 2.7 billion gallons of stormwater as the rain fell in sheets, enough water for 65,600 residents for a year, Public Information Officer Liz Vasquez told CNN in an email.
In all, stormwater detention facilities across Southern California have captured about 15,000 acre-feet — or about 4.9 billion gallons — to recharge to groundwater since Sunday night, according to Rebecca Kimmich, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
One such agency is the Las Vergennes Municipal Water District, whose treatment plant received nearly 10 inches of rain at a rate that prompted officials to look for an alternative solution to prevent raw sewage from being discharged into Santa Monica Bay at Surf Rider Beach.
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At the height of the storm, the plant was using 38 million gallons of water per day. Typical daily consumption is about 7.5 million gallons, but it was designed to process more than that — about 12 million gallons per day, said Mike McNutt, LVMWD spokesman.
He added that what happened earlier this week was a “significant and rapid increase” in water consumption, which greatly strained the plant's functions and could have led to an environmental disaster.
As the water rose, employees played a game of shell with its resources, sending some of the water to a stabilization pond typically used later in the treatment process and then pumping it back to the beginning of the plant for treatment.
Malibu Creek, where LVMWD discharges some of its recycled water, is highly protected by the EPA, and “staff have really avoided an environmental disaster where raw sewage would have been sent downstream,” McNutt said.
Water managers across the West face the urgent need to conserve rainfall in preparation for the coming drought. But many of these facilities were not designed to handle more extreme rainfall events — which the region will continue to experience, even as the overall climate gets warmer and drier.
Most of the facilities are “designed for low- and moderate-flow events — rainfall up to 1.5 inches per day,” Kimmich said. “Flood control and safety are primary concerns during high flow events like this.”
Reservoirs across the state are well above average for this time of year, with some like Lake Oroville and Lake Shasta coordinating flood control releases to make room for runoff from severe storms that hit the state, California's Ryan Indian said. Recently. Department of Water Resources.
For example, Lake Oroville's water content is 116% of average. Some of what is released will pass through the state water project to the San Luis Reservoir “where it will be collected to maintain the overall water supply,” Indian said.
“These releases are necessary to provide critical flood protection for downstream communities and ensure that reservoirs have space to store spring snowmelt runoff,” Indian explained.
In Los Angeles County, the state water project releases excess rainwater from Pyramid Lake that is “captured and stored downstream in Lake Piru by the United Conservation District to provide future water supplies,” Indian added, explaining that the state is coordinating with water agencies Local. “To capture and store as much water as possible from these types of releases.”
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