Los Angeles can now tap up to 43 million gallons a day of previously contaminated groundwater after LADWP commissioned two treatment facilities in North Hollywood on Monday, Aug. 24, according to the Mayor's office.

Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember Adrin Nazarian and LADWP interim General Manager David W. Hanson were scheduled to cut the ribbon at the North Hollywood Central Groundwater Treatment Facility on Hinds Avenue, marking the completion of the North Hollywood Central and North Hollywood West plants. The LADWP media advisory listed state water officials among the speakers, including Joaquin Esquivel of the State Water Resources Control Board and David Nahai, chair of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The stakes are enormous.

The two facilities target the San Fernando Groundwater Basin, which holds more than 80% of the city's local groundwater rights but has been hobbled by industrial contamination dating to World War II-era aerospace and manufacturing operations. Chemicals including trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene and 1,4-dioxane seeped into the aquifer decades ago, and by the 1980s the pollution forced LADWP to shut down the Crystal Springs wellfield, according to Daily News reporting.

That contamination pushed the city to rely more heavily on imported water, which uses three to four times the energy of local sources, according to LADWP. The new plants use granular activated carbon, advanced oxidation and ultraviolet light with hydrogen peroxide to strip pollutants from the water before it enters the drinking supply.

Over the past five years, local groundwater has provided roughly 12% of Los Angeles's total water supply, LADWP data shows. In drought years, that share has climbed as high as 23%. Restoring the San Fernando Basin is central to Bass's Climate Action Plan, released in April, which sets a target of sourcing 70% of the city's water locally by 2035.

When Bass unveiled that plan on April 17, Nazarian, who chairs the City Council's Energy and Environment Committee, said: "At the rate we're going, we will meet our goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2035, and we will meet our goal of water resiliency through technology like our Water Reclamation program."

The North Hollywood Central and North Hollywood West plants are two of three remediation projects LADWP is building in the basin's most productive northern well fields. The third, at the Tujunga Well Field, does not yet have a public completion date. LADWP operates 115 wells across eight major well fields in the San Fernando Basin.

Residents with questions can contact senior public relations specialist Sandra Robles at 213-930-2731.