Water Harvest Festival marks 30 years of recycled water at Edward Little facility

James Powell, reporting from the Edward Little Water Recycling Facility in El Segundo, said the Water Harvest Festival marked the plant's 30th year of treating water for reuse. "The festival celebrated the plant's thirtieth year with tours, giveaways, and stage shows teaching about the importance of water conservation," Powell said.

A festival attendee said the public is increasingly aware that recycled water helps replace imported supplies and improves regional water reliability. "I think the fact that people are recognizing how important water is and how important recycled water is because recycled water is all about replacing imported water," the attendee said.

Facility staff described how the plant treats water. "We're really just trying to remove anything that's dissolved solid. So we look at dissolved solids like your minerals and things like that. We're also looking at suspended solids. So that's like the visible stuff that you're seeing," a staff member said. The staff member described a combination of filtration and reverse-osmosis steps for solids and dissolved constituents and said the plant uses decarbonator towers to remove dissolved gases such as carbon dioxide.

Another speaker at the festival clarified how the treated water is used and its limits. "We provide the potable drinking water, showering water for the city, and, you know, also used for irrigation. West Basin here, they provide, the reclaimed water, recycled water, which is used for irrigation, obviously, not, human consumption," the speaker said. The same speaker added that at locations the transcript refers to as "chargers," operators sometimes switch between potable and reclaimed water depending on nutrient or chemical requirements; the record does not specify what "chargers" refers to.

Scott Houston, introduced in the segment as a director at West Basin, described the relationship between the agency and El Segundo. "El Segundo is our host city, and so West Basin has a very strong relationship with the city, with the city council members, the city manager, and our public works department, and the water department here," Houston said. He added that building and strengthening that relationship has been a priority and that the agency is "extremely grateful for that support."

Longtime festival attendees said the event is educational and that exhibits and displays are updated yearly. One attendee said she had brought her children when they were young and still attends now because she enjoys walking the booths and learning about water recycling.

Festival organizers and speakers emphasized public education about recycled water as part of a broader conservation portfolio; one attendee noted that purple pipes are an indicator of recycled water and that the festival aims to teach that recognition.

For El Sereno Media, I'm James Powell.