CITY OF LOS ANGELES
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS

Technical Corner

Maintenance and Operations

Maintenance personnel at Terminal Island perform scheduled and corrective maintenance on thousands of pieces of manual and computer-controlled equipment. The work is carried outby 30 skilled staff members. The spectrum of work ranges from tasks as simple as changing light bulbs to replacing 1200 horsepower motors.

Plant operations staff consists of 32 people who are responsible for taking readings, monitoring operations, making adjustments to equipment, and conducting preventive maintenance. Staff is on duty 24 hours a day to ensure that the plant functions properly.

Maintenance and operations staffs join teams, attend workshops, and go on retreats that are designed to encourage feedback on how to improve the plant’s efficiency and effectiveness. Staff and management collaboration have resulted in significant cost savings for the City and its ratepayers.

Budget Information:

Advanced Water Treatment Facilities

Micro Filtration

Reverse Osmosis Membranes

AWTF at Terminal Island contain a two stage process that produces water that exceeds the level of quality required by the state and federal regulators, while providing a beneficial resource to Harbor area industrial users. The first stage involves pumping water that has been treated to the tertiary level through a microfiltration unit. These units consist of membranes that filter out minute quantities of pollutants that remain in the tertiary effluent. In the second stage, the microfiltration effluent is pumped through reverse osmosis membranes that filter out pollutants as small as water molecules.

The reverse osmosis process is so effective that AWTF water quality is compared very favorably with that of fresh water in terms of purity and clarity. Disinfection provides an added measure of protection against water borne viruses before the water is utilized for barrier protection.

The final "product water" is then pumped through a distribution system to customers in the Harbor area. Every gallon of AWTF product water used reduces the amount of fresh drinking water diverted for industrial purposes. An expansion of the AWTF to 10 million gallons per day capacity is planned, with an eventual full expansion to treat the total plant flow that is averaging 16.5 million gallons per day.

Fuel Cell

The Terminal Island Fuel Cell Power Plant, dedicated in 2003, was developed by the Bureau of Sanitation and the Department of Water and Power to utilize Terminal Island's bio-gas fuel and expand the City's supply of renewable energy. The stationary fuel cell is a highly efficient, ultra-low emissions power plant that generates 250 kilowatts of clean electricity for Los Angeles – enough power to serve 250 households.