The Impact of the El Segundo Hyperion Plant on the Surrounding Environment
The current El Segundo Hyperion plant is 144 acres of glass, concrete, and pipe. It is the end of the road for sewage from over 6,000 miles of sewer system maintained by the city of Los Angeles. (NORS S-1) The Hyperion plant is the environment’s best and last line of defense against the over 500 million gallons of wastewater produced in the area a day. The sheer volume of this waste most of which is being released into the Santa Monica Bay must be having some impact upon the environment. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the workings of the plant and its impact upon the surrounding environment.
It is best in most things to start at the beginning, so let us answer the question: Why do we have a Hyperion Plant in the first place? The site was first chosen for its favorable and remote position between the city and the ocean in 1887. There was no plant on the premises at the time but was merely the place where the outfall sewer pipe met the ocean. The Hyperion Plant as an entity does not emerge until 1922 when a primary screening plant was built on the site. (WFPU II –2) The major concern in the mind of the city and the public seems to be the quality of the beaches and not any particular concern for the life in the bay. The screening plant kept the beaches clean temporarily but eventually sewage odor, water discoloration, and grease along the beaches near the plant became a serious problem. During the Second World War the beach was so contaminated that the State Board of Health actually quarantined 10 miles of beach from Hermosa to Venice. To clean up the beaches, the city then constructed a secondary treatment plant. The secondary p...
... middle of paper ...
...ill be due for another upgrade and at this time they usually allow forums for the public to express their concerns. If we as a people make our environment a priority our officials will as well. That is the beauty of our republic. The human population in the area and around the world is increasing. We have to get better at our waste management or lose what is left of the natural world.
Bibliography:
Bibliography
Myra L. Frank & Associates. City of Los Angeles EIR / EIS Volume 1 $ 2. 1990.
City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works Bureau of Engineering. Hyperion Solids Handling Facilities Improvement Project. 1993.
City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works Bureau of Engineering. Wastewater Facilities Plan Update. 1990
Department of Public Works Los Angeles, California. North Outfall Replacement Sewer. 1988.
Ashton, John. "KENEDY, MIFFLIN." 15 June 2010. Handbook of Texas Online. Web. 5 May 2014. .
Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Waste Management Division, 9 July 2009. Web. 2 Feb. 2010. .
What we have seen in late January has proved that the city of Phoenix needs one more water treatment facility. The tax revenue that will be lost if a water crisis every happen again will pay for the building of the new facility. The water department has known of this problem for years but has chosen not to rectify the hazard. City officials chalked up the high levels of sediment in the water to Mother Nature, but they acknowledge that a series of decisions by water officials could have worsened the problem. (Villa, Fehr-Snyder, 1) The water department knew and Frank Fairbanks knew that maintenance was required on rotating bases, on each facility and chooses to take two offline during the “winter” or “rainy months”.
our pipelines and sewers where it goes to a treatment plant to be treated, but
Stephenson, R., & Blackburn, J. J. (1998). The Industrial Wastewater Systems Handbook. New York: Lewis Publishers.
Hastings County, Social Housing, “Boxed In” April 2005 (pg. 6, 7, 15, 16, 23, 24, 108) Local Sources (pg. 110-114) Retrieved from: http://www.hastingscounty.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=115&Itemid=88
The city’s water resources being a river, ground water and a reservoir are prone to having hazardous pathogens harmful to anyone who consumes water from the plant. Chlorination in water treatment is a common practice which is used to disinfect water from disease, however, it is known that when microbes attach to or are within particles of water they are protected from chlorine treatments. An alternate solution to chlorine is chloramine. Chloramine is the addition of ammonia to the chlorine compound. Once chloramine becomes in contact with water it is known as monochloramine. According to Gerstein (pg 719. 1931) and Holwerda (pg 719.1928) the germicidal properties were less when ammonia in chloramine was present. Monochloramine lasts a lot longer in water than chlorine therefore protecting the water from disease for a longer period of time. The water supply network consists of numerous pipes that potentially carry disease in them.
Public Act 093-0099. (2003, July 03). Retrieved 05 01, 2014, from Illinois General Assembly: http://www.ilga.gov/
Transition: Everyone has seen or heard people saying that ?we are running out of landfill space and that they are polluting our environment.?
Goldstein, Barbara. “Addition to architect’ house, Los Angeles California, 1979” Domus, no.599 (October 1979): 9
N.p.: ProQuest LLC, 2013. Web. 5 Dec. 2013. . Staff, Proquest.
Agriculture has caused an increase in the flow of nutrients from chemical fertilizers into bodies of water. The excess nutrients change the chemical composition of the water, impacting biological life forms in the affected areas. Sewage is another major source of nutrient flow to the Gulf. There are sections of lakes and oceans all over the world affected by eutrophication and hypoxia, and this has not only biological effects but also economic and social problems. The largest hypoxic area in the western Atlantic Ocean is found in the Gulf of Mexico. The biological repercussions of eutrophication, in the form of habitat alteration and entire trophic structure disintegration are devastating to the Gulf; remediation, though costly, must be put into effect in order to bring life back into the area.
So it is basically a big nuclear reactor. Rimshot. As you can see this could offset the whole ecosystem. It is not worth it. The cost is gigantic as well.
The oceans need to be protected because it is where life began and if not taken care of, life as we know it will end. When dangerous substances go into the ocean, ecosystems are suffer and become endangered along with lives of people and of marine life. Surfrider Foundation recognizes the importance of protecting and preserving the quality and biodiversity of the world's coasts because they are truly irreplaceable. There is also historical evidence of ocean pollution being present in the past, but the problem still lingers today. Heal the Bay discovered that,“Did you know there is a DDT and PCB hot spot off the coast of Palos Verdes? This superfund site (which indicates it's one of the most polluted places in the United States), is left over from a 1930's era chemical plant. Because DDT takes so long to break down in the marine environment, it persists to this day, contaminating certain species of fish. There are also highly polluted sediments in the Long Beach area, a sign of the heavy shipping in the port. Heal the Bay works on developing effective capping and removal plans to keep those toxins from spreading” (Heal the Bay). DDT is still highly concentrated in the South Bay area and still contaminating different species of fish. Even after more than 80 years DDT, a toxic insecticide, is still very concentrated and during upwellings, DDT particles come back up and continue to harm marine life. If humans are careless about what is thrown on the floor or sprayed on lawns, it can lead to disastrous affects when it comes to the condition of the ocean's ecosystems, and can endanger life itself leading to a problem that only we can mend.
The problem with contaminated beaches will soon take effect on everyone. The main causes that pollution creates in the beaches are from heavy rainfall, natural disasters, and plant malfunctions. Government agencies cannot control the weather, but they can control what goes into the water. In the United States, the number one reason why beaches are closed down are due to contamination in the water that may be harmful and are left untreated. The arising problem with the beach is that the industries are producing toxic chemicals and tossing the unwanted waste into the ocean. Also, the public are recklessly throwing their trash out into the streets. A prime example to demonstrate this is, if someone was trying to throw a bottle into a street trashcan but missed, he/she is unlikely to pick up after himself/herself if no one was around to see it. This scenario causes pollution to the sidewalks. When mother nature disasters occur, these waste products will end up in the storm drains and into the sewage system. The overflow of debri from the cities can flow into the rivers and if not preserved, it can flow into the ocean. The rivers will then carry these human caused waste into t...