Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant

Took an informative docent led tour of the water reclamation plant as described in Obscura Society: Los Angeles that also hosted & organized this event:
«Everybody poops, and in a sprawling metropolis as big as LA, all that poop water has to go somewhere — so why not a garden?
One of the leading producers of reclaimed water in the San Fernando Valley, The Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant recycles as much as 26 million gallons of poop water per day, relieving the overburdened portions of the wastewater collection system between the San Fernando Valley and Hyperion. Although few get to tour its sprawling campus, many recognize its futuristic Administration Building as a shooting location for numerous films and television shows, including as Star Trek’s Starfleet Academy.
On our private hard hat tour of the treatment facility, one of the plant’s own engineers will show us how they separate solids from the wastewater, which is then filtered and disinfected in a process that takes nearly a half day. We’ll then tour the 6.5 acre garden with Michael Fritzen, which was designed by world-​famous designer Dr. Koichi Kawara, also responsible for Japanese botanical gardens at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and San Diego’s Balboa Park. Kawara fashioned this garden after „stroll gardens“ constructed during the 18^th and 19^th centuries for Japanese Feudal lords.»
This reclaimed water from the West Valley is used to fill Lake Balboa & Suiho– En, Japanese garden, just adjacent to the water reclaimation plant as well as providing year round water to the LA River. When an additional water purifying plant is set up, the ultra refined water will then be put back into the aquifers to provide Los Angeles more potable water since climate change seems to make drought here in the US Southwest perennial.
This tour is a great eye opener on how great urban areas must treat its waste water that is actually a pollutant, and transform it into a more innocuous form that will not harm the environment. There are parts of this tour where the «fragrance» is strong enough to remind us of the odors coming out of an old fashioned outhouse, but we are rewarded at the end by visiting the refined, elegant, peaceful Suiho– En Japanese garden where blue & white herons, coots, mallard ducks, even pelicans come to enjoy the peaceful waters since this area is part of the Pacific flyway for migrating birds of all kinds.