Every time rain falls from the sky in Los Angeles, the city captures a little. In a year, the city manages to get ahold of 27,000 acre-feet of water on average, more than enough to provide over 50,000 households with water.
But after four years of severe statewide drought, the LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is considering an enormous rainwater capture plan that could possibly yield between 100,000 and 200,000 more acre-feet of water a year by 2035, the LA Times reports.
Presented on June 25, the Stormwater Capture Master Plan includes sizeable projects that would replenish the underground water storage in the Valley by accumulating water and steadily reintroducing it back into the ground, plus smaller plans that could be implemented around the city: streets could develop into green streets, parks could install bioswales, better known as the ditches on the side of roads that collects runoff, and private homes could add rainwater collection barrels or a cistern.
The LADWP says that the projects within the plan will be given the green light on a “case-by-case basis” from the department’s board of directors and from the LA County Department of Public Works, an organization that may also provide funding. The plan could cost anywhere from $60 to $220 million, depending on how the organization captures the rain water. Some researchers predict that, because of climate change, Southern California will be getting fewer and fewer rainy days as the century wears on. Still, but those that do come will be more intense and produce more water than usual. Ideally, the rainwater collection systems could capture more water, to be dispersed and used year-round.
Another positive effect of this plan would be a large reduction in L.A. residents respective water bills; the plans for cisterns and substantially increased amounts of recycled water will save millions of gallons of water, effectively reducing Los Angeles’s reliance on imported water.
