On the heels of one of LA’s wettest winters in decades, the value of a robust, dynamic stormwater capture program has become crystal clear to the public and policymakers alike. LA County voters were ahead of the curve when they passed Measure W in 2018 to better equip the region for the extremes of climate change. The resulting Safe Clean Water Program (SCWP) is the most ambitious stormwater capture program in the country and has already brought myriad benefits to LA’s communities.

Two years have passed since a catastrophic system failure at the Hyperion Water Treatment Plant led to a massive spill of 12.5 million gallons of raw sewage into the plant’s one-mile outfall pipe. This disaster on July 11, 2021 was our region’s most devastating sewage spill in decades. In its aftermath, LA Sanitation & Environment (LASAN) is working with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (LA Regional Board) on a plan to address its numerous violations related to the spill. Depending on the outcome of negotiations between these agencies, robust penalties for this spill could create an opportunity for local community investments focused on ecological restoration, as well as investments that would modernize our wastewater system to protect our region from similar spills in the future.

LA Waterkeeper’s latest report, “Changing the Course?: What’s Worked, What Hasn’t, and What’s Next for the Safe Clean Water Program” assesses the first three years of Los Angeles County’s Safe Clean Water Program (SCWP). The program is funded by a voter-approved tax (2018’s Measure W) that raises about $280M per year, in perpetuity, to better manage urban and stormwater runoff.

LA Waterkeeper tackled some major legal challenges this year, and we could not have done it without our legal interns and their incredible work behind the scenes. From deep diving into the LA River Master Report, to helping enforce Clean Water Act requirements on its 50th anniversary year, to researching sewage spills throughout Los Angeles County, these law students contributed to the litigation work that makes our impact possible.

The Colorado River Compact was negotiated in 1922 with the goal of divvying up what seemed, at the time, like an abundant source of water that could support agricultural growth and widespread community development throughout the southwestern United States. A century later, the shortcomings of the compact are becoming increasingly clear, as discussed in our blog. Most significantly, the Colorado River is drying up under the same mega-drought that’s gripping California, further increasing pressure for Angelenos to reduce residential water demand and advocate for local water supplies to ensure an equitable and resilient water future for Los Angeles.

With LA Waterkeeper reaching a final resolution with the West Basin Municipal Water District to put the final nail in the coffin of its ill-conceived proposed ocean desalination project, it is important to reflect on how important this lawsuit was in promoting a more resilient and equitable water future for the region.

The environmental justice group Riverpark Coalition (RPC) and the prominent environmental watchdog organization Los Angeles Waterkeeper prevailed in their lawsuit against the City of Long Beach, challenging a project that would develop land adjacent to the Los Angeles River previously slated for open space for decades.

LA Waterkeeper Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act

The Emerald Necklace is a vision nearly 20 years in the making, a vision to create a 17-mile loop of parks and greenways connecting 10 cities and nearly 500,000 residents in the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel Rivers watershed of LA County’s San Gabriel Valley. LA Waterkeeper’s litigation helped make this vision become a reality.

LA Waterkeeper’s fight for stormwater cleanup in Los Angeles led all the way to the US Supreme Court.

The County of Los Angeles reached a settlement with LA Waterkeeper to invest $4 million in SEPs to address the #1 source of pollution to LA’s waters: urban and stormwater runoff. From this settlement, $2.8 million went to the Watts neighborhood’s 103rd Street Green Improvement Project, adding ecological features to the neighborhood’s main transportation artery, formerly known as “Charcoal Alley.”

More than three decades ago, a landmark lawsuit filed by LA Waterkeeper and Heal the Bay spurred the creation of the TMDL program, one of the biggest drivers of clean water projects in California. However, half of our waters are still considered impaired by pollution, and deregulation and lack of enforcement threaten to disempower this landmark piece of legislation. Our future depends on restoring, enforcing, and defending the Clean Water Act in the decades to come. How did we get to where we are, and how can we continue to push for better water quality for all of Los Angeles?