— Written by Hana Leshner & The Pique Team

Introducing: 🏗️ Climate Blueprints 🌱 🌆

Welcome to the first installment of our special Pique Behind the Curtain mini-series, Climate Blueprints, where we zoom in on the local solutions that are a force for climate adaptation—or building resilience to climate change impacts. These city and neighborhood-level infrastructure projects are the MVPs of urban living, turning global goals into tangible community benefits right where we live. 🏘️

While we're focusing on the Los Angeles region in the lead-up to LA Climate Week (April 8-15 and come to our event!) 🗓️, the projects we explore are designed to inspire and inform communities everywhere looking to tackle climate challenges. They ensure our cities keep humming—and our taps keep running—even when the climate gets unpredictable. ⚡💧

Making Waves Underground 🌊🧪

In grade school, you probably learned about the water cycle and how all water cycles through the ecosystem, through organisms, through environment and back.  But did you know we actually throw most of our water away?

“Wastewater” is the stuff that goes down the toilet and drains in your house. This water is collected, treated to safe levels to be discharged in large bodies of water (oceans, rivers, etc), or recirculated to the city for non-potable uses, not because it can’t be treated to safe drinking levels, but because it’s hard to get communities past the “ick factor” of drinking it. 

“Stormwater” is rain and runoff that picks up heavy metals and other toxins from our buildings, businesses, and houses. In most municipalities, they don’t even bother treating this water because they don’t know what is in it. In the past, cities treated "stormwater" as a nuisance to be drained and "wastewater" as a problem to be hidden. But with California's "dry spells" getting longer, we can't afford to let any drop go to waste. LA is pivoting toward a future where we stop "importing" our problems and start "harvesting" our solutions.

Just recently, some pioneering water districts have started treating it to a very high standard and then use it to re-charge groundwater, which is a distinctly more efficient system.  There is one city in the U.S. working on a wastewater to drinking water solution due to come online soon.

What is One Water?

One Water is an integrated planning approach that treats all water—including rain, wastewater, and runoff—as a single, reusable resource rather than separate waste streams. It’s the ultimate urban recycling project: the philosophy that even the stuff we usually ignore is a precious resource that belongs in our taps, not just our storm drains. This could be a fully circular water system. All water used or collected can be treated to a level safe to drink and redistributed to the communities. 

Spotlight: The Sustainable Water Infrastructure Project (SWIP) ⛲

Though Los Angeles has its massive city-wide water plans, its neighbor Santa Monica recently finished a "first-of-its-kind" project that is making waves. Located entirely underground (under a parking lot!), the SWIP is a high-tech facility that captures stormwater and sewage to create a new, local water supply.

• The Stats: The SWIP Advanced Water Treatment Facility (AWTF) can treat up to 1 million gallons per day of stormwater and wastewater, purifying it to potable reuse standards. That’s enough to meet the needs of about 10% of the city!

• The Tech: It uses a rigorous multi-barrier treatment system to ensure the water is high-quality and safe. This process includes:

  • Membrane Bioreactors (MBR) and Cartridge Filters to remove organic pollutants, bacteria, and tiny particles.

  • Reverse Osmosis (RO) to scrub out larger contaminants like salts, pharmaceuticals, and viruses.

  • Advanced Oxidation using high-powered Ultraviolet Light and chlorine to form hydroxyl radials for destruction of industrial pollutants.

  • Final Disinfection using chlorine to disinfect the water one last time and protect water quality in the distribution system.

• The Goal: It’s helping the region reach water self-sufficiency by providing a reliable, local source for both non-potable reuse (like irrigation) and potable reuse to recharge local groundwater aquifers, reducing reliance on water that travel in open canals from hundreds of miles away.

• Making a Splash (California Firsts): The SWIP is the first below-grade AWTF designed to treat raw wastewater and stormwater to drinking water standards for groundwater recharge all within one facility. It is also the first stormwater harvesting project in the state to meet potable reuse standards and directly inject the treated water into the groundwater aquifer.

The Big Lift: Making ‘One Water’ Work 💪

You know what they say: teamwork makes the "stream" work. This $96 million project didn't just appear overnight; it was a masterclass in collaboration and regulatory grit.

• The Leadership: Led by Sunny Wang, Santa Monica’s Water Resources Manager, the city’s Public Works department spent years navigating the complex regulatory "plumbing" to get this approved—a critical step in making a project like this possible.

• The Funding: This was a true "all-hands-on-deck" financial effort.  The SWIP received grants from the State Water Resources Control Board ($8.77 million from Proposition 1 Stormwater Grant Program), LA County’s Measure W Safe Clean Water Program ($7.5 million), and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Local Resources Program (nearly $20 million over 25 years). The project also received $55 million in low-interest loans from the  State Water Resources Control Board and additional "liquidity" coming from the City of Santa Monica’s wastewater enterprise and locals Measure V stormwater funds.

Check out Sunny Wang’s digital tour of the facility here if you want to see for yourself!

The Bigger Picture 🏙️

This isn't just a Santa Monica thing; it's a blueprint for Los Angeles’ Hyperion 2035 vision. Los Angeles is currently scaling this model through its One Water LA 2040 Plan, a city-wide strategy to manage all water—from rain to sewage—as a single, integrated resource. LA Sanitation is working to transform the massive Hyperion plant into a 100% water recycling facility, mirroring the SWIP’s technology on a massive scale to clean up local groundwater basins and secure 50% of the city's water locally by 2040.

My Local Blueprint 🏘️🚰

You don't need to be a water engineer to start making an impact. Taking inspiration from the "One Water" approach, every drop matters in a larger community effort, and it starts with a little curiosity about your local system.

1. Explore Your Watershed: To find out about the health of the water right under your feet (or running into your storm drains), use the EPA’s “How's My Waterway?” tool.

2. Monitor Your Flow: Many cities, like Santa Monica, already have smart water meters installed. Contact your water district to opt-in to their program—it's a free way to get real-time leak alerts. Or, you can install third-party smart meters inexpensively, with some models even subsidized by your insurance, to catch those hidden drips or leaks before they become a flood.

3. Harvest the Wet Stuff: Be a rain-barrel hero by setting up a system to capture rainwater for your garden. It’s a great way to conserve, and it helps reduce runoff pollution (plus, it's a great excuse to buy a new 'barrel of fun').

4. Connect with a Local Group: To promote water recycling and conservation, consider joining a local watershed council, or simply call your municipal water district to ask what conservation and reuse programs they are currently pumping out.

From the Pique Archives: One Water in Building Form 🏠💧

Want to see "One Water" in action on a smaller scale? Dive into the Pique Archives and watch our film on Epic Cleantec and their building-scale 'One Water' solution. It's proof that the 'One Water' concept scales to every size, from a city plant down to a single building. 

📆 Community Events 🌱

🍀 Join us and our partner Carbon Collective for a St. Patty’s Day happy hour! Pastor Murphy will be preaching decarbonization from a bar stool instead of a pulpit. Absolution available between sips of stout. Forgive us, planet, for we have emitted. Sign up here

🌆 On April 8th, we’re co-hosting The Stories Behind the Data: Masterclass on Becoming a Skilled Climate Communicator. Come early or stay after for drinks, tamales, and conversation! Sign up here