EPA awards $1.8 Million for Water Recycling Plant

By Daniel Rivera, Reporter 

On June 30, the EPA and Metropolitan announced that it has received $1.8 million in federal funding from the Biden administration as a part of an ongoing revitalization project called the Brownfields Program. 

The project’s goals are to reuse and revitalize land that has been polluted by a variety of factors, mainly former industry and oil refinement. 

The grant will help develop the former Fletcher Oil and Refining Company or FORCO site at 24501 S. Figueroa Street into a water processing plant for drinkable water for nearby residents. Currently, the site refines water destined to be dumped back into the sea, which they refer to as a secondary standard. 

The site holds trauma for members of the community, back in 1969, a RedLandsDaily article details that there was an explosion in which about 150 were injured. The plant would later shut down in the 1990s and the site would be bought by the Los Angeles Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County in 2000.  

“We were there when it exploded, it burned all eight of my family, from first-degree  to third-degree burns,” said Jesse N Marquez, a member of the Coalition for Safe Environments, an advocacy group that has been around for about 20 years. He’s lived in Carson his entire life near the plant itself.

Marquez is excited about  the plant because the investment will mean that the site that has historical water shortages will now have a new source of water. 

“It was contaminated because it was an old oil field… it has a lot of chemical contamination from the oil,” said Martha Guzman, Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator. 

“The company left the county with the bill,” and “the big goal of this whole project is a water recycling plant for the entire region,” said Guzman about the plans for the site. After the site is decontaminated, the site will be used to make drinkable water and recharge the groundwater. 

“We are embarking on Phase 2, which involves cleaning below 30 feet. We’re estimating it will take us five to six years and cost $6 million,” said Martha Tremblay, Los Angeles County Sanitation District Assistant General Manager. She explained that the ratepayers  would be paying for the rest.

“Nine million people live within the vicinity of where the Metropolitan Water District is  going to recharge the groundwater in the basin,” Chief Engineer John Bednarski explained that the MWD will be able to draw water that was treated at the plant.” 

Bednarski explains that the current water recycling plant uses methane pulled from the water to power the facility making it completely standalone. As for the future site, it will take from the grid. He explained that they plan on contracting with local providers to use renewables and they plan on exploring adding solar farms to the site as it is developed. 

Metropolitan Project Engineer Bart Garcia led a tour of a scaled-down  version of the facility and explained the various steps that are now involved in the recycling process. 

“The advance treatment process will get to 150 million gallons a day,” said Garcia when talking about the future site.The current site filters 250 million gallons a day, and that water will be further refined in the future site when it’s complete. 

The process broadly has three steps, using fiber-membrane filters to remove larger particles. The second step in the process is reverse osmosis, a process where water is forced through a membrane to clean out smaller particles.

“These filters remove 99.9 of whatever comes in. It will remove almost everything but it doesn’t remove all the viruses and Cryptosporidium,” said Garcia. 

Cryptosporidium causes diarrhea in those infected by it. 

According to Garcia, this step gets the water to near distilled quality which preps it for the final step and decontaminates it with ultraviolet light and oxidants like chlorine.  

Garcia explained that the water is going to be discharged back into the ground, one such location will be where the 605 and 210 highways meet in Irwindale. 

Representative of the 44th congressional district, Nanette Barragan was originally slated to also appear but was unable due to a family emergency.