Our tour guides, who were usually plant engineers, and my subsequent research, has revealed a much more tragic picture than the partying would suggest. Due to limited capacity, the plant was partially treating only one half of its nearly 400 million gallons of our city's wastewater each day. The remaining untreated half has been polluting Santa Monica Bay for years. The waste is piped into an underwater canyon five miles off shore. Plant officials will speak as if the waste is permanently out of reach, but this is far from the truth.
Ocean currents bring it up regularly, resulting in beach closures and illnesses.
Hyperion sewage tanks under construction Los Angeles has a long history of ocean pollution. Between 1949 and 1979, the city dumped 1,000 pounds of DDT per day into the Bay. That poison, along with the rest of the waste we have been dumping since the 1930s, is still out there. Ask any Southern California surfer about his or her chronic skin diseases and health problems. On our planet with its interconnected ecosystems, there is no such thing as throwing something away.