 The Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation is one of those rare places where engineering innovation and environmental stewardship have not only converged, but are championed by every City office.
Our engineers develop and oversee the systems and programs that safeguard L.A.’s air, land, and watersheds. Our job is to protect public health and the environment. We work throughout the City, using some of the most technologically-advanced and environmentally-friendly resource management systems in the world.
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Opportunities
When you join us as an Engineering Associate, meaningful work is yours for the asking in several areas: |
 Solid Resources
Much of the work in our immediate future will be focused on researching alternative technologies (waste to energy, for example), source reduction, conservation, and recycling. We need innovative engineers to help us advance the City’s growing effort to recycle and reuse more of our solid resources.
Wastewater Collection and Treatment
Be part of a program that is responsible for operating and maintaining one of the world’s largest, most technologically-advanced and environmentally-responsible wastewater collection and treatment systems. The City’s system of sewers and treatment plants serve more than four million customers in Los Angeles and 29 contracting cities and agencies.
Watershed Protection
The Bureau’s Watershed Protection Program leads stormwater pollution abatement projects that help stop polluted discharges from entering the storm drain system and local coastal waters. We are looking for creative, hard-working engineers who are interested in design, investigations and inspections, monitoring water quality, and communicating with the public. |
Asset Management
Our Wastewater Capital Improvement Program has an annual budget over $100 million. We need excellent engineers to help manage our assets, budgets and expenditures.
Information and Control Systems
Work with a team that is responsible for the Bureau’s automation and computer technology. Provide network design and management, GIS support, installation and support for over 1,500 personal computers along with strategic planning related to computer systems and automation.
Regulatory Affairs
We need bright engineers to help us identify, analyze, and prepare for emerging environmental issues, policies, regulations and legislation. We routinely partner with regulators, environmental groups, and other actively involved stakeholders to ensure that proposed regulations and legislation are achievable and based in science. |
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I work here
Four million people live in Los Angeles. Three million more work here. We are also one of the greenest cities in America. You can design and drive your own career with the Bureau of Sanitation. Here are a few stories from the people who have become an important part of what the Bureau is doing to create bold ideas in L.A. |
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Armen Saiyan
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I couldn’t ask for a better work environment than the Bureau of Sanitation. Every day, my job is both challenging and satisfying.
My division is working on converting our fleet of sanitation collection trucks to run on clean-burning liquefied natural gas (LNG). The Bureau of Sanitation has the largest fleet of clean-fuel trucks in the entire country.
We also designed state-of-the-art LNG and compressed natural gas fueling stations. These fueling stations store the largest volume of LNG on the West Coast – over 150,000 gallons of clean fuel.
Some of us are researching innovative alternative technologies for systems that will convert solid waste to “green energy”.
Los Angeles is getting greener every day, and by working with the Bureau of Sanitation, I’m part of making that happen. |
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Bryan Johnson
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I wanted to use my engineering skills to help protect the environment. So now I am one of a team of people who perform professional sanitary and environmental engineering work in connection with water supply, wastewater treatment, and water quality control. I help design, run, and optimize the secondary activated sludge treatment process at Los Angeles' Hyperion Treatment Plant.
My team at the Bureau of Sanitation "walks the walk" in protecting the environment and public health. We effectively manage the volume of primary effluent, microorganisms, and oxygen used in the secondary process in order to avoid the violation of EPA discharge standards, keeping from harming the ocean we discharge to, its inhabitants, and the public.
And, by the way, the Hyperion Treatment Plant is the largest municipal wastewater treatment plant on the west coast and serves about 3 million people, treating roughly 350 million gallons of wastewater a day. The American Public Works Association selected the 10-year, $2 billion upgrade of this plant as one of the Top 10 Public Works Projects of the 20th Century. It's good to work here.
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Nancy Chung
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At the Bureau of Sanitation, I’ve been able to apply my love of science to protecting Los Angeles’ incredibly diverse ecosystems.
LA is known for the Pacific Ocean and its miles and miles of beaches. But LA’s watersheds also have harbors and bays and natural wetlands along the coastline, rivers and arroyos, urban lakes, tributary streams in the Santa Monica Mountains, and dry river washes in the upper San Fernando Valley. It’s an amazing region.
My work involves restoring watercourses and establishing open space and habitat. Colleagues of mine in the Bureau of Sanitation are working on designs for constructed wetlands that will use plants and water circulation to extract pollutants and improve water quality.
Our work gets a lot of support. The voters of Los Angeles recently approved $500 million in Clean Water bonds to be used towards capital improvements that protect water quality in the watersheds. The Bureau of Sanitation is leading several parallel efforts where we’re coming up with projects and policies that are bold and innovative and that combine green engineering with cutting edge technology. One of the things I enjoy most is collaborating with the public on ideas that work best for their neighborhoods as well as the watersheds. |
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Bold Ideas
Bureau of Sanitation engineers bring bold technical skills and leadership to research new ideas, manage projects, guide groundbreaking public policies, and work hard for the people who call Los Angeles “home”. Here’s a snapshot of just a few of our bold ideas in technology and innovation, environmental stewardship, and leadership.
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SOLID WASTE INTEGRATED RESOURCES PLAN
Solid resource issues were in the news a lot this year. The Mayor called for and the Los Angeles City Council approved an increase in trash fees. Our City Council also supported the innovative “Renew LA” plan for reduced dependence on landfills and voted to divert a substantial portion of daily trash away from the Sunshine Canyon landfill.
RECYCLING FOOD WASTE
 Restaurant waste consists of over 70% organics (leftovers from preparation tables and plate scrapings) that can easily be recycled. The Bureau is conducting a restaurant food waste recycling pilot program, where the waste is composted instead of sent to landfills. We intend to implement the program citywide to most of the 10,000 food service establishments by the early part of 2007. With a decrease in the amount of waste to be collected, the City and restaurants will see cost savings, and the rest of the population will enjoy better air quality from fewer trucks driving food waste to landfills.
WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT
TERMINAL ISLAND TREATMENT PLANT RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECT
Our Bureau has been researching the feasibility of injecting biosolids into deep wells to produce an environmentally-safe, renewable source of energy. Our goal is to diversify our options for managing biosolids with proven safe and beneficial resource recovery programs. The Terminal Island Renewable Energy Project concept is to place biosolids in depleted oil and gas reservoirs more than a mile underground. There, the earth’s high internal temperatures and pressures form methane gas from the organic matter in the biosolids – much like oil reserves formed from prehistoric creatures and plants. Carbon dioxide is also produced, but this greenhouse gas stays trapped in the deep subsurface through sequestration. Within a relatively short period of time, we can recover a steady supply of methane for use as a source of renewable energy.
HYPERION TREATMENT PLANT DIVERSE PROJECTS
Cryogenic air separation facility – it's cold in here! Los Angeles is the largest municipal agency in the U.S. converting sludge to Class A (Exceptional Quality) Biosolids. These biosolids meet or exceed federally prescribed standards for safety. Currently, they are used as a fertilizer and soil amendment to grow corn, wheat, and alfalfa for animal feed. A smaller portion of the biosolids is mixed with green waste and manure from the Los Angeles Zoo to produce compost at the Griffith Park Composting Facility. The City is exploring other cost-effective and environmentally sound options for beneficial use of its biosolids.
At 196 degrees below zero, oxygen liquefies and is separated from the air. About 250 tons of liquid oxygen per day are sent to the reactor tanks in the secondary treatment process to help the bacteria grow.
WATERSHED PROTECTION
LOW FLOW DIVERSIONS
A Low Flow Diverion is a structural device that routes urban runoff from canyons, streets and small watersheds away from the storm drain system or waterway, and redirects it into the sanitary sewer system, where the contaminated runoff then receives treatment and filtration before being discharged into the ocean. As the name suggests, the unit collects street runoff and, through a series of tanks and pumps, diverts the liquid flow into the sanitary sewer system, and is rerouted to the City's Hyperion Treatment Plant.
PROPOSITION O PROJECTS
In the fall of 2005, the Proposition O Citizens Oversight
Advisory Committee, the Oversight Administrative
Committee, and the Bureau of Sanitation reached out
widely to communities in Los Angeles, inviting the public
to propose capital improvement projects for the City to
design and build to prevent pollution. After a series of five
workshops, 52 proposals were submitted. Of these, 21
have been recommended for implementation.
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