Pure Water Los Angeles

Every single day, the City of Los Angeles utilizes approximately 450 million gallons of water to sustain our homes, schools, and local businesses. Historically, our city has depended heavily on imported water sources transported over hundreds of miles, including the Los Angeles Aqueduct from the Eastern Sierra, the Colorado River, and the State Water Project (SWP) from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. However, climate change, escalating droughts, and unpredictable natural disasters like major earthquakes threaten the long-term reliability of these imported supplies.  

The Pure Water Los Angeles (PWLA) program is our proactive response to these challenges. By maximizing the reuse of treated wastewater from the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant (HWRP), we are creating a completely new, safe, and highly sustainable municipal drinking water source. This initiative empowers us to transition to a 70 percent local water supply, ensuring that our region remains resilient and self-reliant for generations to come. 

Successfully executing one of the largest water recycling programs in the nation requires deep institutional alignment and shared expert ownership. PWLA represents a long-standing collaborative partnership between LA Sanitation & Environment (LASAN) and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). While LASAN manages the wastewater treatment processes, LADWP oversees drinking water distribution and regulatory compliance.  

To coordinate our unified resource planning, the program works under the guidance of the Climate Cabinet-Water Resiliency group, which brings together the City of Los Angeles Mayor's Office, LASAN Management, LADWP Management, and the Board of Public Works (BPW) Commissioners. In early 2025, our joint teams marked an important strategic milestone by completing our core guiding frameworks: the Master Plan authored by LADWP and the Hyperion Program Implementation Plan created by LASAN. Together, these foundational planning roadmaps establish the project phasing, technical analysis, and long-term timing for infrastructure construction, showing that our first phase of 50 million gallons per day could be operational by 2040.

To transform treated wastewater into pristine drinking water that safely meets or exceeds all strict state and federal water regulations, the program introduces cutting-edge engineering barriers. First, LASAN will upgrade the secondary treatment processes at the Hyperion facility by integrating Membrane Bioreactors (MBR) to produce a substantially higher-quality water source. This water will then be directed into a brand-new, world-class Hyperion Advanced Water Purification Facility (HAWPF). 

 At this facility, the water undergoes an intensive multi-stage purification process down to the molecular level. The resulting advanced treated water, up to 230 million gallons per day, will be used for potable reuse applications. This includes Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR) to safely replenish our local groundwater basins and Direct Potable Reuse (DPR) applications. To protect public health, the system will maintain continuous testing and environmental monitoring of every drop before it flows out to Angeleno taps.

Environmental accountability and regulatory integrity guide every phase of our infrastructure development. Following our initial years of technical pre-planning and testing between 2022 and 2024, the program officially entered Phase Three in 2025. This phase centers entirely on our formal state regulatory mandates under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Our technical teams are actively conducting comprehensive evaluations to compile a detailed Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (PEIR). The PEIR process carefully assesses all potential environmental impacts, analyzes sensible infrastructure alternatives, and ensures absolute alignment with public health standards. This formal environmental review and state compliance period is scheduled to wrap up in late 2026, clearing the path to launch Phase Four design, building, and operations in late 2026 or early 2027. 

A water system for the community must be designed with the community. LASAN and LADWP are deeply committed to open, transparent, and inclusive public outreach throughout the program's entire life-cycle. We prioritize understanding and responding directly to community needs, ensuring that local public voices directly shape our planning. 

We place special emphasis on partner engagement with historically underserved neighborhoods that have been disproportionately affected by inequitable urban development in the past. To achieve true climate justice, our agencies launched an initiative to build a dedicated equity roadmap. This strategic roadmap helps identify specific actions so that our environmental improvements, workforce development opportunities, and regional investments directly benefit all local populations equitably.

Use this link to sign up for a Hyperion tour.

Transitioning the City of Los Angeles to an independent water future requires a significant, long-term capital investment. The total estimated programmatic cost ranges from $21 billion to $26 billion over its multi-decade rollout. To build these critical projects in a highly responsible and cost-effective manner, LASAN and LADWP are actively seeking outside funding partnerships to protect future water rates for local families.  

We are targeting federal support through low-interest loans from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) and federal grants from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Title XVI Large-Scale Water Recycling Program. Additionally, we are utilizing the municipal bond market alongside low-interest state loans and grants provided by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds.

Please visit ladwp.com/purewaterlosangeles for more information.