LA Joint Outfall System Master Facilities Plan

Los Angeles, and Los Angeles County, is a large and fast-growing urban area where water use and conveyance—including wastewater—have a critical impact on potential growth. We worked collaboratively with a consultant team and the region’s Sanitation Districts to contribute to the Clearwater Master Facilities Plan for the Joint Outfall System. The wastewater service area covers 660 square miles, and wastewater is collected by approximately 8,500 miles of city and county-owned local sewers and then conveyed via the Sanitation Districts’ 1,230 miles of sewers.

By necessity, wastewater conveyance programs have long planning horizons, in this case 40 years. The Joint Outfall System Master Facilities Plan anticipates the region’s population to grow to over 6 million, with system flows exceeding 600 million gallons per day. The facilities planning effort, done in conjunction with preparing the supporting Program Engineering Information Report, included close technical coordination with the Sanitation Districts’ tunnel/outfall conceptual design consultant. Our team determined that the proposed ocean outfall element was in fact not required to accommodate projected future flows—substantially reducing the project’s cost.

The award-winning Clearwater Master Facilities Plan for the Joint Outfall System supports long-term sustainability and effective wastewater management in this semi-arid region. We are proud of our role in what is truly a product of effectively combining the skills and talents of the consulting firms and the Sanitation Districts.