DWP, city commissioner acknowledge the infrastructure is aging
(Continued from cover) acknowledged that they are behind schedule and have made assessments of DWP’s current and future tasks. Q: Would it be fair to say that in some areas of the city the DWP’s infrastructure is 50, 60 years old or more? SR: We have pipes in the downtown area that are at least 90 years old, but there is newer pipeline in other areas. You can sort of trace how the city grew by looking at when the pipeline was put in. In the 1950s and 1960s there was a lot and after that there was less, so you can see how the city developed. Q: Can you talk a little about the state of the DWP’s water infrastructure? SR: We have 72,000 miles of pipeline in the city of Los Angeles. Some of our infrastructure is old and we have replaced a lot of it further north of the city. It’s not cheap to replace and it will take several millions of dollars. We are behind in replacing our pipeline but we are ramping up. A lot of people look at our (pipeline) and say, ‘It’s old, so we must have to replace it.’ Age is a factor, but there are other things that you look at to make a determination. When you replace pipelines and trunklines, there have to be planning studies, which then moves to design. Then it goes to the construction phase and depending how important it is, it can take two to three years for construction. Q: What about the type of pipeline that you are using? Is any of the material that was used now outdated? SR: What we typically use for the smaller pipes is called ductile pipe, which is for smaller mains. Before, we used to use cast iron pipe but we don’t use that anymore because it’s kind of brittle. In areas where there is high pres-
sure we use ductile pipe. In the Venice area, we did a pilot program to put in PVC pipe because the Venice area has a very high water table and it’s also seawater, which is corrosive. We also have another pilot program where we’re installing ductile earthquake resistant pipe from Japan. They’ve used it in Japan for 40 years and in the entirety of the 40 years that it’s been in, they’ve not had leaks. Q: Eric, what about the in-
Los Angeles Public Works Commissioner Steven Nutter discussed the state of the city’s streets, sidewalks and curbs and the city’s plans to repair them.
Photos by Jorge M. Vargas
ERIC HARTMAN of the DWP said four new transformers will be i nstalled for the Venice/Silver Strand area.
signed to be underwater all the time in the saltwater environment. We should have three or four transformers replaced by July. Q: What about the Scattergood Generating Station (in Playa del Rey near the Hyperion Treatment Plant) – are there any plans for renovation there? EH: We are going to replace Unit Three at Scattergood because the state has mandated that we get all of our coastal plants off of what is called ‘once through cooling,’ a process that uses ocean water to cool as part of the generating cycle. The goal is to have this facility up and running by December 2015. The cost at Scattergood, just for Unit Three, is at least a $800-900 million job. The important thing is that we need these gas-fired plants and to get to renewables and away from coal, which represents a fairly large percentage of our current energy mix.
JOHN GREGORY and Susan Rowghani answer questions at The Argonaut’s infrastructure roundtable.
3,000. The city’s general fund, which is relied upon to fund all improvements in sidewalks and roads, went through the floor, but (Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa) has worked hard to scrape together enough resources to pave 800 miles this year. The city has essentially had to triage by using slurry seal, which is like a thin coat of asphalt, to cover the roads that are salvageable, and we use a computerized program to determine how best to do that throughout the city.
Councilman Rosendahl called on all city departments to produce infrastructure compliance reports on Sept. 23, 2010 less than two weeks after a Pacific, Gas and Electric natural gas explosion in the Northern California suburb of San Bruno. John Gregory, Rosendahl’s legislative deputy, talked about the council office’s role from a legislative position regarding what the city’s plans are in case of an emergency similar to the San Bruno explosion. Gregory was in charge of the legislative effort of the departmental compliance review. Q: Did the departments comply with the councilman’s request, and how does the city respond in the event of a terrorist attack, an earthquake or — Public Works Commissioner Steven Nutter other natural disasters? JG: Immediately after San Bruno there were concerns and we wanted to look at our pipeline The city’s Board of Public infrastructure, including natural Q: While a large percentage Works spends at least $600 milgas, jet fuel and other petroleum of the city’s streets, curbs, allion a year on capital improveproducts that are flowing under leys and sidewalks are in need ments and some of those are our city’s streets and homes. We of repair, it is quite visible in funded by special funds from the brought forward a group of indiplaces in District 11 such as sewer fees account. viduals from various entities, inSepulveda Boulevard in Q: A proposal by Councilcluding the California Public Westchester, Centinela Avenue man Mitchell Englander for a Utilities Commission, the Gas in Mar Vista and Pacific Avebond measure that would have Company, the Fire Department nue in Venice. How would you paid for sidewalk repair died and Emergency Management for assess the condition of District before it had was discussed by a 90-minute discussion in council 11’s infrastructure and what the City Council. Is a bond about what procedures are in Public Works has done recentmeasure the best approach to place (in case of an incident simily? repair sidewalks and curbs? lar to what happened in San SN: I’m a Westside kid. I SN: Currently the sidewalks Bruno). grew up in Westchester and I live and the roads would have to be Q: What are DWP’s continin Venice, so this is turf that I built with general fund money, gency plans in case of a natural know and care a great deal about. which means that it’s money that disaster or an explosion? Because of the (economic downisn’t earmarked for special use by SR: We have in place a water turn that began at the end of one of the departments. We’re a system emergency response plan, 2007), the city has had to shrink number of years behind in fixing as does power and that’s tied into its workforce by more than the sidewalks because we’ve not the city emergency operations fa-
“We also have decaying electrical and water systems, decaying roads and sewers. But the real plus is if we invest in this now, it pays for me, for my children and my children’s children. This investment, if done right, will last.” frastructure from the power side? How would you assess it? EH: We’re going through a very large transformation right now to get off of coal. We have approximately 26 receiving stations and 120 distributing stations throughout the city. We’ve been on a large replacement program with our electricity poles. Some of them have been in place for a very long time and they need to be replaced. Because of the proximity to the ocean and the seawater, some of the transformers near the Venice/Silver Strand area in the water are corroding way faster than they should be. So we’re replacing them with a different kind of transformer that is de-
PAGE 6 THE ARGONAUT April 4, 2013
had the funds to do them. So it will take some special revenue raising in order to be able to fix the sidewalks or it would require the obligation to be shifted back to the homeowner. It’s a bill that will be billions of dollars, whether it’s paid for by the city or the homeowner.