The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 109, No. 13 - March 26, 2020
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................7
Classifieds............................6
Crossword/Sudoku.............6
Film Review..........................2
Legals.................................6,7
Letters...................................3
Obituaries.............................2
Police Reports.....................3
Real Estate........................5,8
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Sunny/Wind
64˚/50˚
Saturday
Partly
Cloudy
66˚/52˚
Sunday
Sunny/Wind
66˚/52˚
El Segundo Parks Are the Best
Teamwork makes the dream work. The parks crew planted this new Tipuana tipu tree and five other new shade trees at Washington Park. Thank you to the parks crew for all your hard work.
Photo El Segundo Recreation & Parks.
Scott Houston Spills About
Plans for Desalination
By Rob McCarthy
Clean water that keeps people, parks and
pets hydrated is a convenience that’s easy
to take for granted. Scott Houston knows
better, though. He’s coming off a yearlong
term as president of the West Basin Board of
Directors, which is responsible for keeping
water flowing to about 1 million customers.
Not everyone needs the same type of water,
so the district makes 40 million gallons and
five brands of the recycled stuff daily.
There are residential customers, business
parks, parks, light industries and manufacturers
at the end of the pipelines. The
rainstorms that moved through the South Bay
last week after almost no precipitation since
January brought much-needed rain. But, the
snowpack in the high Sierras is what water
officials, including Houston, watch closely.
California lacks storage when it does rain,
but snowpack is natural storage that keeps
the rivers and streams flowing year-round in
good years. That often gets overlooked down
in the low-lying urban areas.
The representative for El Segundo, Del
Aire, Wiseburn and Lennox favors a proposed
desalination plant along the coast
in El Segundo. The idea isn’t a new one.
Removing salt from ocean water has been
discussed at the South Bay’s Metropolitan
Water District for nearly as long as West
Basin has been around. The district’s elected
leaders kicked around the idea of purifying
the ocean water off the coast back in 1947,
according to Houston. Push came to shove
nearly 70 years later, as the population grew
and competition grew for the state water from
the Colorado River and Northern California.
The environmental-review process to build a
desalination plant in the district boundaries
was completed in 2019, and Houston voted
to accept it.
The issue came up before the board in
November, when four members voted to approve
the EIR and to move forward on the
permitting and regulatory steps - which are
considerable. Carol Kwan, who represents
the beach cities and Torrance, cast the lone
no vote. Houston calls the issue his toughest
call yet. The water district, which acts as a
wholesaler to cities and areas of the county,
buys imported state water and recycles 40
million gallons per day at its El Segundo
plant. Pumping the groundwater in the basin
is not an option. The rights to that water
belong to El Segundo, but not to West Basin.
“I believe it is imperative that we explore
every water supply option we have in order
to make an informed decision that makes
sense for our ratepayers in the communities
we serve,” Houston said. His district
stretches from El Segundo to Malibu and
includes Marina del Rey, Culver City and
West Hollywood. The assumption is that the
population will continue to grow. So will
the competition for state water pulled from
the Colorado River and stored in the annual
snowpack in the Sierra Nevadas.
The desalination plant doesn’t have a start
date for construction. The project will need to
secure permits to build and operate at the site
between El Segundo and El Porto. The costs
See Scott Houston, page 3
When Community Counts
Hello Readers,
Jeepers! We’re in a pickle. We are all
in a pickle.
As your community newspaper, we
aren’t sure which way to go. Do you want
us to include articles on the coronavirus,
which is hard to avoid these days, or do
you want a distraction or respite from
it all?
We want to serve the community the
best way we possibly can. As we always
do, we want to bring some positivity and
light to what we all are going through.
You can help.
Please send us photos of what you are
doing as individuals, families or businesses,
while staying home and sheltering in place.
Write a brief paragraph of the strength
and pride of your community, a happy
memory or of a good deed that you’ve
witnessed. I’m sure there are plenty.
Send anything positive to web@heraldpublications.
com
Stay safe. Shop locally. Support our
business community. Love your family,
neighbors, community members and your
local paper. Much love from us.
– HM. •