Supervisor Don Knabe announced today that the Board of Supervisors approved Phase 2 of the communications system for the West Coast Basin Barrier Project. This project will greatly enhance the County’s ability to protect its groundwater supply from seawater intrusion.
The $3.41 million project will create an Automated Data Acquisition and Telemetry System that will enable the County’s Department of Public Works to remotely collect, store and analyze information on the operational conditions at facilities associated with the project. By creating a unified communications system between the wells, engineers can control the West Coast Basin Barrier remotely from a centralized monitoring facility. This will allow for more rapid changes in the injection system and better monitoring of the groundwater supply in the underground aquifers.
The West Coast Basin Barrier is comprised of 153 injection wells that stretch from the Palos Verdes Peninsula, north to Los Angeles International Airport. By injecting water into these wells, seawater from Santa Monica Bay is prevented from seeping into the critical freshwater aquifers underneath the Los Angeles Basin. Seawater intrusion is the movement of ocean water into fresh groundwater, causing contamination of the groundwater by salt.
In Phase 1 of the project, which was completed in April 2010, the County constructed a 12-inch-wide underground conduit which the future telecommunication controls of Phase 2 would eventually run through. The West Coast Basin Barrier Project is located in the Cities of El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, and Torrance. Access to adjacent properties will remain open during construction and traffic impacts will be minimal.