Study finds Rancho Palos Verdes could reuse landslide dewatering water — but project hinges on grants

The Rancho Palos Verdes City Council on [date not specified] received a joint feasibility report from the Infrastructure Management Advisory Committee (IMAAC) and the Finance Advisory Committee (FAC) on reusing water pumped from deep dewatering wells at the landslide complex.

Peter Shaw, chair of IMAAC, told the council the committee visited the Water Replenishment District desalter in Torrance and reviewed a containerized treatment technology offered by a vendor described in the report as Water Harvesting Solutions. "If they can do it, so can we," Shaw said, describing a concept that packages treatment equipment into a shipping‑container footprint to reduce building and site costs.

The subcommittee presented a conceptual model in which reverse‑osmosis treatment and bypass loops would produce an irrigation‑quality product while diluting waste brine so it can be disposed of appropriately. Shaw told the council the study used conservative design assumptions and estimated a net usable yield from treatment of about 68 percent — in other words, roughly 680,000 gallons usable per million gallons treated — and a conceptual capital cost in the order of $7.2 million, dominated by distribution piping and storage tanks.

On the revenue side, the committee estimated a potential retail market to nearby golf courses of roughly 250,000 CCFs per year and projected maximum gross revenue of about $2.3 million annually at competitive pricing assumptions. "Without amortizing capital costs, the project could produce some operating income; with amortization the net is negligible," Shaw said, and he added the committee concluded the project would not be viable without grant funding.

Council members pressed on several practical questions: where to site the treatment modules so they do not cross the moving landslide, who would own and operate the system, and whether the city should assume the long‑term role of producer. Shaw said the committee purposely avoided routing distribution pipes across unstable ground and assumed modules would be sited on firm ground, with the city continuing to pump for landslide stabilization. He also recommended targeted expert review of legal and regulatory issues — notably whether producing and selling water could create utility obligations or tax consequences — before pursuing grants.

Council member Bradley voiced concern that building desalination infrastructure while the city continues dewatering and stabilization work might create assets that would be underused if the landslide is successfully stabilized. "We're trying to put in a bunch of infrastructure to harness something that we eventually hope is going to go away," Bradley said. Mayor Pro Tem added that the study answered questions residents had long raised but recommended filing the results and moving the idea to the back burner while pursuing grant opportunities and expert vetting.

Following the discussion, a council member moved to receive and file the joint IMAAC/FAC feasibility report. The motion was seconded and passed on a unanimous roll call vote.

What happens next: the committee recommended limited expert review of hydrology, regulatory ownership and utility/tax implications, followed by focused grant‑seeking if issues are resolvable. The council did not authorize capital expenditure; it received the report for future consideration and potential grant pursuit.