County sanitation district describes recycling, energy and planned water‑reuse demonstration at Warren facility

Genesis Rodriguez, a public affairs specialist with the Los Angeles County Sanitation District, spent the commission’s February meeting describing how the district converts sewage and solid waste into resources for communities across Los Angeles County. The presentation covered the district’s service area, treatment plants, recycled‑water projects and a proposed advanced treatment demonstration at the AK Warren Water Resource Facility in Carson.

Rodriguez said the district serves 78 of the county’s 88 cities and operates 11 wastewater treatment plants. “We convert waste into resources such as recycled water, energy, and recycled materials,” she said, describing the district’s approach to reusing treated water for agriculture, landscaping and groundwater recharge. She noted the district has produced reused water since the 1960s and said it has recycled large volumes—“we’ve been able to treat, recycle over 1,000,000,000,000 gallons of water” since 1962.

The presentation focused on the AK Warren Water Resource Facility in Carson (referred to in the presentation as the Warren facility), which Rodriguez said currently treats about 250,000,000 gallons per day and has an official treatment capacity of about 400,000,000 gallons per day. She said the Warren facility historically discharged its treated effluent to the ocean because of higher salinity from industrial inflows, but that the district and partners are pursuing additional treatment so that more of that water can be reused.

Rodriguez described a partnership with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to advance the district’s Pure Water Southern California program: Metropolitan would take a portion of treated wastewater from Warren, subject it to advanced purification and then use it for indirect potable reuse (for example, by recharging groundwater basins), or distribute it through its treatment system. Rodriguez said the project is seeking state and local grant funding.

She also outlined other resource programs at district facilities: biosolids are digested and dewatered, then composted with other organic material; captured digester and landfill gases are converted to roughly 20 megawatts of renewable energy at Carson and other sites; and recycling and automated sorting lines recover paper, cardboard, glass and plastics. Rodriguez noted recent state requirements on food‑waste recycling (SB 1383) that have increased organic inputs and helped boost onsite energy production.

Rodriguez closed by describing public outreach and education—school tours, a sewer‑science class for high school students, and a planned public festival at the Warren facility on August 1 intended to invite neighboring cities to see treatment operations and workforce training programs. Commissioners raised questions about odors, historical impacts on nearby neighborhoods, and the Warren plant’s ability to accommodate future population growth; Rodriguez said odor control systems and buffer land around the plant are part of the district’s mitigation and that Warren currently treats somewhat more than half of its design capacity.

The commission did not take action on the presentation itself. Rodriguez left informational materials for the city and invited commissioners to the planned public event.

The presentation began with Rodriguez’s overview (topic start SEG 061) and concluded when she closed her remarks and answered final questions (topic finish SEG 879).