“Bingo”: USD Workers Recover Flushed Wedding Ring
It’s a triple-crown win for Union Sanitary District (USD) Collection Services workers: They recently recovered a treasured ring thought to be lost in a sewer line – the District’s third ring rescued in recent years.
Union City customer Bonhellita Ancona left the District a distraught voicemail noting she’d lost the wedding ring she’d worn for 74 years down her toilet several days previously. “If it’s found, please, please let me know,” she said in her message. When Collection System Workers Johnny Powell and Chris Ybarra inspected the sewer main in her neighborhood the next day, their remote-controlled maintenance camera revealed the ring caught on a bit of debris. The cleaned-up ring was then reunited with its grateful owner. Bonhellita’s son Leonard Ancona addressed USD’s Board of Directors at a recent meeting to thank staff members on behalf of his mother. He described working in Bonhellita’s yard as Powell and Ybarra tried to retrieve the ring, then hearing one of them call out “Bingo!” “An incredible find or a miracle was truly witnessed,” said Ancona. Hearing of two other rings rescued by Collection Services workers in previous years, Ancona smiled and concluded, “the trifecta is complete.” “The steep terrain of the street and slope of USD’s main lines at that location make the ring a very lucky discovery considering it was lost many days earlier,” said Collection Services Manager Jose Rodrigues. “We’re glad to return something that means so much to the owner and family.”
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State Officials Provide $80 Million in funding to Pure Water Southern California
State officials presented an $80 million check this month to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts to help advance Pure Water Southern California, a large-scale, regional water recycling program that will create a new source of water to benefit 19 million people amid a changing climate.
The project partners celebrated the state funding at a July 19 event at the project’s demonstration facility in Carson, where they were joined by local and state dignitaries, including State Assemblymember Lisa Calderon (D-56th District), State Assemblymember Mike Gipson (D-65th District), E. Joaquin Esquivel, State Water Resources Control Board chair, and Carson Mayor Pro Tem Jawane Hilton. The state funding will help accelerate the project’s design and construction, with the potential to begin construction as early as 2025 and water deliveries to start in 2032.
Scientists and engineers are testing an innovative purification process at the demonstration facility to ensure the purified water meets the highest standards. Once built, the full-scale project will take cleaned wastewater that is currently sent to the ocean and purify it to produce high-quality drinking water. The purified water will then be delivered through up to 60 miles of new pipelines to the region’s groundwater basins, industrial facilities and two of Metropolitan’s water treatment plants.