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Reviewed by: Mark Yaney, Science and Math teacher New Earth Youthbuild, Culver City.
Location: Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant, 12000 Vista Del Mar, Playa Del Rey, CA 90293
Phone: (310) 648-5000
Accessibility: Hyperion is on the beach in El Segundo, just south of Playa del Rey and you can enter the facility at the main entrance on Vista del Mar. As the name implies there is a lovely view of the Bay opposite, and you can sometimes see 2 oil tankers moored 1 mile from shore, either picking up or dropping off product from the local Chevron (El Segundo) or Exxon (Torrance) refineries. El "Second-0" is the city of Standard Oil's second refinery in Southern California.
Description: Until 1925, raw sewage from the city of Los Angeles was discharged untreated directly into Santa Monica Bay in the region of today's Hyperion Treatment Plant.
With the population increase, the amount of sewage became a major problem to the beaches, so in 1925 the city of Los Angeles built a simple screening plant in the 200 acres (0.81 km2) the city had acquired in 1892.
Even with the screening plant, the quality of the water in the Santa Monica Bay was unacceptable, and in 1950 the city of Los Angeles opened the Hyperion Treatment Plant with full secondary treatment processes. In addition, the new plant included capture of biogas from anaerobic digesters to produce heat-dried fertilizer.
In order to keep up with the increase of influent wastewater produced by the ever growing city of Los Angeles, by 1957 the plant engineers had cut back treatment levels and increased the discharge of a blend of primary and secondary effluent through a five-mile (8 km) pipe into the ocean. They also opted to halt the production of fertilizers and started discharging digested sludge into the Santa Monica Bay through a seven-mile (11 km) pipe.
Marine life in Santa Monica Bay suffered from the continuous discharge of 25 million pounds of wastewater solids (sludge) per month. Samples of the ocean floor where sludge had been discharged for 30 years demonstrated that the only living creatures were worms and a hardy species of clam. Additionally, coastal monitoring revealed that bay waters often did not meet quality standards as the result of Hyperion's effluent. These issues resulted in the City entering into a consent decree with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the State of California to build major facility upgrades at Hyperion. In 1980, Los Angeles launched a massive sludge-out to full secondary program to capture all biological solids and keep them from entering the Bay. The sludge-out portion of the program was completed in 1987.
The $1.6 billion sludge-out to full secondary construction program replaced nearly every 1950-vintage wastewater processing system at Hyperion while the plant continuously treated 350 MGD and met all NPDES permit requirements.
West Basin Municipal Water District purchases approximately 37,600 AF, or roughly 9 percent of Hyperion's secondary effluent for treatment at the Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility (courtesy of Wikipedia).
Audience:
A Life science teacher would benefit from visiting the plant by seeing the various life forms that inhabit our wastewater and what it takes to remediate, or kill them.
An Earth science teacher would benefit from visiting the plant by beginning to understand what is necessary to filter the waters from our sewage into something more environmentally sustainable.
An engineering teacher would benefit from visiting the plant by, if nothing else, witnessing the sheer scale of the operation, and what means are necessary to process the effluent of millions of people.
Science Concepts Addressed:
Matter and its Interactions.
Discover how changes of conditions increase production at equilibrium during the wastewater treatment process
Observe reactions that occur due to changes in temperature during the wastewater treatment process
Energy
Identify environmental and engineering components that convert one form of energy into another in our Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certified building
Compare graphical displays on impacts affecting biodiversity and populations
Detect the effects of pollution on an environment
Discover design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services on which humans rely: water purification and recycling
Identify cycling of matter and flow of energy in aerobic and anaerobic conditions during the wastewater treatment process
Tour the LEED Gold certified building and discover engineering techniques to reduce impact on natural resources
Learn about major global challenges today and how they can be addressed through engineering
Additional Resources
Hyperion Environmental Learning Center
Here is the Form to Complete for our Trip
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