Los Angeles is running out of water, and time. Are leaders willing to act?
(CNN) — They call it a sea of green.
It’s the latest attempt by city hall to clean up the city’s overflowing sewage system, but it seems to have failed.
So now the city is turning to water itself with promises of a massive project to bring even more water from Lake Eureka and taps in the desert to the troubled Los Angeles water supply.
“There’s still this problem that we have a very, very serious problem,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti at Wednesday’s unveiling of his proposals to save the city’s troubled water supply.
“There’s still this problem that we have a very, very serious problem,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti at Wednesday’s unveiling of his proposals to save the city’s troubled water supply.
The mayor said his plan would cost $3 billion but would be worth it, because the city will gain a water source that would increase its supply by 1.3 billion gallons a day.
But experts have questioned whether the project, dubbed the Big Valley Project, would be worth the water that will be taken from the city’s aqueduct and diverted to the mountain, a potential threat to the mountain’s water system.
“My suggestion is that a good number of people in the city of Los Angeles will find this proposal very problematic because there will be a water source for their city that they don’t know what to do with,” said Dr. James Grant, a retired geologist who was the scientific adviser to the City of Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s.
“The problem will be how to dispose of the water,” he said.
The project will be funded by $200 million annually from the bond issued by former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, now a U.S. senator. Additional money will be provided by private donations, Grant said.
Funded by Villaraigosa
The mayor said the project is being funded through a bond issue of $200 million from Villaraigosa, a former two-term mayor who has been the Democratic Party’s presidential
