FUNDING: City of Santa Monica, City of Los Angeles, State Water Resources Control Board, Metropolitan Water District, Federal ISTEA Grant Funds, Los Angeles County Proposition "A" Grant

Stormwater/urban runoff is considered the number one source of pollution to Santa Monica Bay. At the end of the 90's, many cities across the country are looking for creative ways to treat their stormwater. Santa Monica's Urban Runoff Recycling Facility, otherwise known as the "SMURRF", is one of the finest examples of the future of dealing with polluted stormwater/urban runoff to the maximum extent possible to protect our coastal waters for future generations.  Download Fact Sheets

The SMURRF project is the first facility of its kind in the nation and perhaps the world! This state-of-the-art facility will treat dry weather runoff water (from excessive irrigation, spills, construction sites, pool draining, car washing, the washing down of paved areas, and some wet weather runoff) that now goes directly into Santa Monica Bay through storm drains, taking with it pollutants such as oil and animal waste -- anything that finds its way onto a surface exposed to runoff.

An average of 500,000 gallons per day (gpd) of urban runoff generated in parts of the cities of Santa Monica and Los Angeles will be treated by conventional and advanced treatment systems at the SMURRF. The runoff water will be diverted from the City's two main storm drains into the SMURRF and treated to remove pollutants such as trash, sediment, oil, grease, and pathogens. Treatment processes include:

• Coarse and fine screening to remove trash and debris
• Dissolved Air Flotation, DAF to remove oil and grease
• Degritting systems to remove sand and grit
• Micro-filtration to remove turbidity
• Ultra-violet (UV) radiation to kill pathogens
  

ART and EDUCATION

For the last decade, dealing with stormwater pollution has centered on education: teaching and motivating individuals and businesses to reduce their own "contributions". When completed in the summer of 2000, the SMURRF will be open to the public. Designed with education in mind, the SMURRF will be more than a place to go . . . it is a location through which people will move. This effect is accomplished by an elevated walkway that descends from one end of the site to the other.

Visitors will have a complete view of all of the equipment and processes that are used to purify the urban runoff. The siting of the equipment and the technology used was considered equally with the need to make the process of runoff treatment understandable to visitors. The equipment will be arranged in sequential order and oriented towards the viewer so that visitors can follow the technology and the process visually. Each piece of equipment will be placed on a prominent base and raised to an appropriate viewing level. In several locations, the water moving through the system will be "daylighted", or exposed to the open air to allow visitors to clearly see the water treatment process.

The education element of the design will be concentrated in the information plazas located at the top overview area and bottom viewing area of the walkway. Art and architectural elements are being designed to convey three messages to visitors:

• To explain the workings of the facility
• To place the facility in the larger context of the Santa Monica urban watershed, and
• To inform citizens as to what they can do to decrease or eliminate pollution in urban runoff and from the Santa Monica Bay, and increase or maximize the recharge of rainfall stored in underground deposits or aquifers.

For further information, please contact the community outreach hotline at (310) 458-8223.

CREDITS:

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: City of Santa Monica
ENGINEERING DESIGN: CH2MHill, Boyle Engineering
ARCHITECTURAL and LANDSCAPING DESIGN: Miralles Associates
ARTIST: Richard Turner
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT: Black & Veatch Corporation
CONTRACTOR: Pacific Mechanical Corporation

This page was last modified on 07/23/2008