I was invited to a
gamelan concert at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation plant in Van Nuys by a friend who had been a professional pianist and was (still is) really into all sorts of music, Summer 2000. I had no idea what a gamelan was, or what a reclamation plant was, but the setting involved a Japanese garden so I was in. (We went with another friend of ours and my parents, and had a fabulous lunch after at one of my all-time favorite restaurants,
Pho 999 in Van Nuys.)
Good thing I brought a camera so I can show you some of what I saw. (Who knew I'd wind up in Los Osos five years later in the throes of a sewer war and that I would start a sewer blog in 2012!) Click the shots to see a larger view.
The building above was where the concert was held. Open another browser window and
click this link to view a YouTube video or two on this sort of music!
This is probably what the original CSD had envisioned for Los Osos when it put the wastewater treatment in the middle of town. Maybe not with a Japanese garden, but something where nature was the main event, with birds and flowing water, plants and trees, where you could walk about in peace and beauty. But cleaning the water for Los Osos' park-like setting in 2000 didn't quite work out with the Regional Water Quality Control Board. And the Japanese ponds don't do the water cleaning in Van Nuys either. See the shot below for where that happens (26 million gallons of water is recycled every day).
Yes, I was surprised to find the treatment for the sewage to be right behind the building that faces the garden, and in fact, the large vats were open to the air (the one on the right is empty, the one on the left, full). The smell in the garden was not of sewage, but that of a watery park, a little moist and swampy, like other city parks with ponds, but not sewage-stinky.
The Tillman is home not just to gamelan concerts but to
weddings and
film crews, including Star Trek, a particular favorite of mine.
Visit these links to learn more:
http://www.lacitysan.org/lasewers/treatment_plants/tillman/index.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment