West Basin slashes recycled water project scope to salvage $1.3M state grant amid USACE delays

West Basin slashes recycled water project scope to salvage $1.3M state grant amid USACE delaysFaced with a looming deadline and a 10-month administrative hold by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the West Basin Municipal Water District has opted to pivot to a scaled-down $1 million pipeline project to ensure critical state funding is not revoked.

The original plan envisioned $6.4 million in pipeline expansions to serve parks and schools in Carson and Gardena, relying heavily on $4.8 million in appropriated USACE funds.

To avoid losing a $1.3 million Proposition 1 grant from the California Department of Water Resources, the district will now limit the project to a single 800-foot connection at Mills Memorial Park.

Staff reported that the USACE agreement has been stalled at the commander level for 10 months, prompting Los Angeles County to pressure the district to show progress.

The reduced-scope project is estimated to cost approximately $1 million and will take 15 months to complete, utilizing existing environmental documentation.

The Engineering & Operations Committee of the West Basin Municipal Water District reached a consensus on July 22 to drastically reduce the scope of its Harbor/South Bay recycled water pipeline project. The pivot is designed to rescue a $1.3 million state grant that was at risk of being revoked due to prolonged federal inaction. The original plan envisioned roughly $6.4 million in investments to build the Mills Park and North Gardena recycled water pipelines, which would have delivered 59 acre-feet of water annually to local parks and schools. The funding package relied heavily on $4.8 million appropriated through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). However, district staff reported that the required project agreement has been stalled at the USACE commander level for 10 months with little explanation. The district had also secured a $1.3 million Proposition 1 grant from the California Department of Water Resources, administered locally by Los Angeles County. With the federal funds frozen, Los Angeles County began pressuring the district to demonstrate progress or face the reallocation of the grant money to other regional projects. Staff noted that even with a recently secured grant extension to June 2028, waiting for the USACE agreement posed an unacceptable risk to the state funds. Rather than wait for the federal bottleneck to clear, the committee backed a staff recommendation to move forward with a reduced-scope project. The revised plan will utilize the $1.3 million state grant—which requires no local cost-share—to fund a single 800-foot recycled water connection to Mills Memorial Park in the City of Carson. The scaled-down project is estimated to cost approximately $1 million and will take 15 months to complete. By limiting the scope to an alignment already cleared under previous programmatic environmental documentation, the district expects to meet the grant's strict spending deadlines. While the district will proceed without the USACE for this immediate phase, staff indicated they will continue to advocate for the release of the remaining federal funds to complete the deferred pipeline segments in the future.