August 12, 2021

The July 11 Hyperion sewage spill was the largest emergency discharge at the plant in a decade. With more and more information about the spill and its impacts coming out weekly, you may be wondering what exactly happened? Amid the chaos and confusion, LA Waterkeeper has tracked everything about this disaster to keep you updated on the latest developments. We'll recap the July 11 incident, share information we have learned since the spill, and explain our strategy to prevent future sewage catastrophes.

Disaster Strikes Hyperion Water Treatment Plant

According to Hyperion, on July 11, it received an unusually high volume of trash in the sewage. The 8 screens at the headworks building—screens that filter trash out of the sewage—were overloaded by the excessive trash, resulting in sewage overflowing onto the facility floor and through the plant's streets into other buildings. Despite trying to recirculate the overflowing sewage for hours through the plant's stormwater system, the sewage built up so much that LA Sanitation (LASAN) decided it had to send it out into the ocean through the plant's 1-mile outfall pipe. It was reported 17 million gallons of raw sewage were discharged. Still, LASAN has since informed that it was able to pump 4.5 million gallons of the sewage back into the facility from the 1-mile outfall pipe before it was released into the ocean. 

Three weeks after the spill, discharges from the plant were still far over permit limits, and - surprisingly - pollutant levels continued to increase. When these ongoing and increasing violations were discovered, community members and nonprofit groups were confused and concerned by what was occurring. Why was partially treated sewage still coming out from Hyperion?  

The answer is simple. The July 11 spill flooded nearly half the massive facility, wiping out much of the plant's electrical systems and equipment—including the many pumps that remove sludge from the bottom of holding tanks, where the wastewater sits to allow solids to settle to the bottom. With those pumps offline, the sludge kept building up in the tanks over the weeks after the flood. As a result, the wastewater being discharged into the ocean started mixing with larger amounts of sludge, ultimately leading to discharges with higher amounts of suspended solids.  

Once the flooded water was cleared out from the plant, LASAN was able to install temporary pumps to begin removing the sludge buildup from the holding tanks. Now that the treated wastewater is mixing with sludge to a lesser degree, the pollutants in the plant's discharges have slowly declined. The agency expects the plant to return to full operation at some point in August or September. However, there still may be another week or two of wastewater discharges with elevated levels of suspended solids. 

The Aftermath: LA Waterkeeper Tours Hyperion

LASAN officials, including new head Barbara Romero, Chief Operating Officer Traci Minamide, and plant manager Timeyin Dafeta, speak during the tour of the Hyperion Plant on Wednesday, August 4, 2021. Photo by Brittany Murray.

On August 4, LA Waterkeeper's Executive Director Bruce Reznik and Staff Attorney Ben Harris had the unique opportunity to join the leaders of LASAN, LA Department of Public Works, and partners Heal the Bay and NRDC, on a guided tour of the Hyperion facility. The tour exposed how bad the spill truly was within the Hyperion facility—and how much more catastrophic the damage could've been if not for the valiant efforts of LASAN staff. The 200-acre facility looked, and smelled, more like a disaster zone than a modern treatment facility.

"It's one thing to read about the flooding and equipment damage," noted Waterkeeper's Ben Harris. "It is much starker seeing first-hand the 'bathtub ring' flood lines on the walls—at times chest high— and walking through floors covered with toilet paper and debris. It was hard not to leave the tour with the distinct realization that as bad as the spill was, things could have been truly catastrophic if not for the actions of dedicated LASAN staff."

Why has there been such a major focus on this incident? Beyond the obvious answer that this spill and subsequent sludge-laden discharges pose a significant environmental and public health threat, this incident raises significant and concerning questions about the plant's operations and various agencies noticing protocols, including:

1. Why was there such an excess of trash on an otherwise typical Sunday (and in the dry season no less), and how is the plant not equipped to handle this excess? Until we answer these questions, we remain at risk of future spills.  

2. How could this spill flood so much of the facility, endangering worker safety and damaging so much critical equipment that could have led to even more catastrophic results?  

3. Why were our public agencies, including the LA County Department of Public Health (LADPH), so slow to close beaches (in violation of their protocols), and what can be done to coordinate a robust noticing effort better so that we minimize health threats to the public? 

What’s Next – Near-Term Steps That Must be Taken

• Notice protocols: We will demand accountability from the LADPH for failing to follow their protocols to immediately close beaches when there is a known sewage spill, while also working with the City and County to develop a more robust notification plan beyond existing protocols.  

• Bacteria monitoring: We will push the City and County to use currently existing methods for rapid bacteria indicator monitoring following a known sewage spill, which will be a more effective way to notify the public whether it’s safe to go into the water today, rather than whether it was unsafe yesterday.  

• Public education: We will work with LASAN and LADPH to enhance public outreach about the dangers of flushing trash down the drain, including “flushable” sanitary wipes (most of which are not actually flushable and are the target of greenwashing legislation campaigns) and other disposable trash items not meant for sewers.  

• Sewer inspections: We will coordinate with LASAN and other relevant agencies to ensure they regularly inspect the sewer system and enforce trash dumping laws, which is necessary to keep the sewers clear of trash in the future.  

• Hold Hyperion accountable: Hyperion must be held responsible, period. We will demand the Los Angeles Regional Water Board provide appropriate penalties and remedies in response to the July 11 disaster to prevent future spills from occurring at Hyperion, including requiring some of the steps outlined above. 

A More Sustainable Wastewater Future

While these short-term objectives are worth prioritizing, LA Waterkeeper is also focused on the bigger picture of how Hyperion plays into our region’s water supply. It is now time to stop using the ocean as our region’s dumping ground and instead invest in a state-of-the-art---and ideally decentralized---water purification system.

This was the basis of LA Waterkeeper’s successful lawsuit against the California State Water Resources Control Board, which affirmed that it no longer makes sense to pump over 200 million gallons of treated wastewater into the ocean when we can instead purify and recycle that water for beneficial uses. And we were heartened to see Mayor Garcetti announce his goals to recycle 100% of the City’s wastewater by 2035 under Operation NEXT. But while we support these initiatives to recycle wastewater, having a single wastewater treatment plant for most LA’s sewage still poses the same risks of plant failure and sewage spills that we saw on July 11—which could have been dramatically worse if the entire plant failed. On top of that, there was a concerning new discovery that Hyperion’s wastewater cannot be recycled to the same degree following the spill.  

That’s why LA Waterkeeper is embarking on efforts to advocate for our region’s leaders to explore shifting to more decentralized wastewater treatment and a state-of-the-art purification system. Not only will catastrophic sewage spills into the ocean be less likely, but we would also save money and energy over the long term by distributing purified water throughout the City from more local sources rather than from a single facility. In addition, considering the IPCC’s recent report sounding dire alarms about climate change impacts, we must reduce carbon emissions associated with our importing water long distances and instead focus on local, low-carbon water solutions as much as possible, such as distributed water recycling.

As we move forward, rest assured LA Waterkeeper, Your Water Watchdog, will work closely with longtime ally Barbara Romero, the new head of LASAN, and other agency staff and our many partners to advocate for answers as to what caused this sewage spill, how to prevent future sewage spills, and, for a decentralized and state-of-the-art wastewater treatment system that is well-suited for our City’s needs.  

In the meantime, we advise everyone in Los Angeles to proceed with caution in recreating and fishing in the Santa Monica Bay —at least until we know Hyperion is back to full operation and its discharges meet permit limits.