Santa Monica built a facility that can produce 10% of the city’s water demand by treating wastewater and stormwater for indirect potable reuse. And it’s practically invisible.
“The bad joke my staff gives me a hard time about is that we spent $96 million on a parking lot,” says Sunny Wang, water resources manager. “Because essentially that’s all we have to show for it on the surface.”The facility, known as the Sustainable Water Infrastructure Project received a 2023 Helen Putnam Award for Excellence from the California League of Cities. The treatment system came online in November 2022.The project consists of a
