California isn’t recycling nearly enough water, according to a new report by UCLA researchers, who say the state should treat and reuse more wastewater to help address the Colorado River’s chronic shortages.
L.A.’s big plans to recycle almost all of its wastewater for drinking is likely to take a lot longer than originally proposed.
Back in 2019, former L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a goal to recycle almost all of L.A.’s wastewater by 2035. But the long-awaited plan on how to actually do that pushes the timeline back more than 20 years — to 2056, though some wastewater would be recycled for drinking by 2040.
The drought may have ended in 2017, but now, even when it’s raining, California’s water supply has remained a topic of debate. And while there have been calls for more water storage, some believe the problem could be solved if we stopped viewing water as a single-use product. Much of Northern and Central California’s freshwater flows toward the Delta. But with so much being siphoned off by so many different interests, it’s become a huge battleground in state Sen. Jerry McNerney’s district.
A career building and maintaining California’s water and wastewater treatment systems may be unglamorous, failing to spring to mind — at least it did for me — when young people contemplate their future careers.
However, the state faces a looming shortage of workers in these critical roles. It is imperative to support local, state and federal policies that help fill them.
