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VOL. 14,
MWD starts pump project to ensure water supplies during droughts By Joe Taglieri joet@beaconmedianews.com
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$280 million project to bring additional sources of water to parts of Southern California hit hard by the state’s last drought got underway Wednesday, the Metropolitan Water District announced. Officials from Los Angeles and Ventura counties broke ground in Culver City for the the Sepulveda Feeder Pump Stations Project, which will enable the MWD to reverse flows in its system if needed during severe droughts. The project’s aim is to move water from the Colorado River and Diamond Valley Lake into communities that currently have limited access to those key water resources, usually relying almost entirely on water from the northern Sierra Nevada that is delivered through the State Water Project. Diamond Valley Lake is the region’s largest reservoir. During the 2020-22 drought, which were the state’s three driest years on record that severely curtailed
The site of a forthcoming water pump station to mitigate droughts in the SoCal region. | Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Water District
Water Project deliveries, communities in Ventura and Los Angeles counties did not have enough water to meet normal demands. Residents and businesses were required to dramatically curtail water use. “Metropolitan had never
before imposed such strong reductions in water use on a portion of our service area. It was an unprecedented situation sparked by the hotter temperatures and more extreme droughts we are facing as the climate changes,” Metropolitan
General Manager Shivaji Deshmukh said in a statement. “When we saw the impacts of this historic drought on some portions of our service area, we committed to taking action to avoid this ever happening again.” The Sepulveda Feeder
Pump Stations Project calls for two new pump stations that, when needed, can push Colorado River water and water stored in Diamond Valley Lake into northern
LA and southern Ventura counties, reversing normal water flows in the existing Sepulveda Feeder pipeline. By early 2029 when officials expect the project to complete, the MWD will be able to deliver up to 22,000 acre-feet of additional water annually to the State Water Project-dependent area during severe droughts. An acre-foot is approximately 326,000 gallons, which is enough to serve three Southern California families for a year, officials said. The pump stations’ design allows for future expansion based on water supply conditions and approvals by the MWD board. “Under normal circumstances, our system largely relies on gravity to deliver water. But we learned during the last drought that left some communities without access to available water. Now, we will have the ability to pump more water uphill
See Water projects Page 19
LA Metro advances underground heavy rail for Sepulveda Transit Project By City News Service
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he Los Angeles Metro Board of Directors Thursday approved an underground heavy rail option for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project that aims to connect the San Fernando Valley to the Westside. In a unanimous vote, the board selected a Locally Preferred Alternative, referred to as Modified Alternative 5, a route that would go from Van Nuys to Sherman Oaks, under Bel-Air and Beverly Crest, UCLA and end at Metro’s E
Line/Expo Sepulveda Station. The alignment would provide nearly 13 miles of rail with seven stations at an estimated cost between $20 billion and $25 billion. Metro officials say the price tag will change as they finalize the design and other factors. Metro identified some funding from Measure M, a 2016-voter approved halfcent sales tax to support transit projects, to support the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project. “The Sepulveda Transit
Corridor project would add a critical regional connection to the transportation network linking the San Fernando Valley and the Westside, providing a fast, safe and reliable alternative to the congested 405 freeway,” Cecily Way, senior executive officer of countywide planning for Metro said. The board’s approval of a Locally Preferred Alternative allows for further design refinement and authorizes advancement of a final environmental impact report, and
additional environmental documentation, Way added. There were five options to choose from. Metro officials landed on Modified Alternative 5, which they say leverages the strengths of other proposals. The route is expected to have high ridership, high frequencies, shorter station construction sites, and reducing other cost elements. “This is an important and exciting moment for Los Angeles,” Los Angeles City Councilwoman and Metro
Director Katy Yaroslavsky said. “There’s still a lot to do until we get shovels in the ground, let alone open this thing.” Yaroslavsky described the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project as transformative as the L.A. Aqueduct. “We have tried widening freeways and building over mountains, and we’ve spent billions doing it. The approach has failed,” YaroSee Sepulveda Transit Page 19
slavsky said. “This project represents a fundamentally different strategy.” She called for the agency to focus on the path to delivery and funding, encouraging her colleagues to push for cost reductions, explore new technologies, and construction approaches. Yaroslavsky, who represents Westside neighborhoods and communities in the Santa Monica Mountains,