Mesmer Low Flow Diversion Project
Award
Sustainable Engineering Project
Description
The City of Culver City implemented the Mesmer Low Flow Diversion to meet the Ballona Creek Enhanced Watershed Management Program need for LFDs to address the dry-weather Total Maximum Daily Loads in the Ballona Creek Watershed and improve water quality.
The project is located on Centinela Creek, a tributary of Ballona Creek Estuary, downstream from Ballona Creek Reaches 1 and 2. Centinela Creek, at the location of the diversion, receives flow from a 6,288-acre drainage area. The jurisdictions are the City of Culver City, contributing 954 acres; the City of Inglewood, contributing 1,563 acres; the City of Los Angeles, contributing 1,961 acres; and the County of Los Angeles, contributing 1,810 acres. The project drainage area is composed of commercial, single-family, and multi-family residential land uses.
The project is one of the largest dry-weather diversions to the sewer in terms of the tributary drainage areas. The project captures dry-weather runoff generated in a 6,288-acre drainage area and is part of a set of three projects being used to address dry-weather water quality requirements in the Ballona Creek Watershed. This runoff then is transported to the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant to be treated and reused as recycled water. The project repurposed an existing sewer lift station to divert dry-weather runoff to the sewer, which saved time and money.. It utilizes innovative controls to turn on and off the pumps, including an onsite rain gage and flow monitoring equipment.
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