FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 19, 2011
For more information, contact:
Carrie W. Capuco
WERF Director of Communications
571-384-2097
ccapuco@werf.org
Lauren M. Skinner
Principal Public Relations Representative
City of L.A. | DPW | PAO
213-978-0327
Lauren.skinner@lacity.org
WERF Honors City of Los Angeles Biosolids Resource Management
Program with Award for Excellence in Innovation
(ALEXANDRIA, Va.) — The Water Environment Research Foundation
(WERF) recognized the City of Los Angeles with its Award for Excellence in
Innovation on Tuesday afternoon for the Bureau of Sanitation’s Terminal Island Renewable
Energy (TIRE) project. TIRE has offered numerous environmental
solutions and a successful diversified biosolids management program
while potentially saving millions of dollars annually since the facility
began operating in 2008.
This new WERF award recognizes organizations that have made
improvements to wastewater and stormwater collection, storage or
treatment operations, facilities, or processes by applying WERF
research. The City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works is one of
two organizations to receive the award in its inaugural year.
The TIRE project is the nation’s first full-scale demonstration
project of an innovative technology to convert biosolids into clean
energy by deep-well placement and geothermal biodegradation. “The
Bureau of Sanitation is honored to have been selected by the Water
Environment Research Foundation for this award. The Terminal Island
Renewable Energy project improves air quality and reduces greenhouse
gases by using wastewater treatment byproducts as a renewable resource
in an innovative and environmentally safe manner,” said Bureau of
Sanitation Director Enrique C. Zaldivar.
Placing biosolids in deep subsurface formations using state-of-the
art technology further protects groundwater as opposed to land
application. TIRE also reduces truck traffic and associated exhaust
emissions, pollutants, odors, and dust by 520,000 miles per year. There
is a reduction in land application of biosolids in an exposed
environment of 54,750 tons per year. Also, there is elimination from the
atmosphere of 84 tons of NOX and 13 tons of carbon monoxide (CO) per
year. Currently, WERF is working with the Los Angeles Bureau of
Sanitation and others to identify other parts of the country where this
work can be replicated.
A team of WERF volunteers, who themselves are some of the most
recognized individuals in the water quality industry, selected the award
recipients from a field of many well-qualified organizations.
“We encourage those applicants who did not receive this
year’s award to re-apply next year, emphasizing the progress they
have made in their implementation efforts,” states Selection
Committee Chair and WERF Board Member Joseph Zuback of Global Water
Advisors, Inc.
Additional information on this award can be found at www.werf.org or www.lacity.org.
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The Water Environment Research Foundation, a nonprofit
organization formed in 1989, is America's leading independent scientific
research organization dedicated to wastewater and stormwater
issues.