L.A. loses 100 billion gallons of water a year. This park is helping recapture it
A major renovation of Earvin “Magic” Johnson park in South Los Angeles offers a glimpse of the future of water conservation in the climate-change era.
Water is the quintessential paradox of Los Angeles. For decades, the water system in arid and drought-prone L.A. has relied on water pumped in from outside sources at great financial, social, and environmental expense. But the water it gets for free—through rain and snowmelt off nearby mountains—is mostly ignored and sent flowing speedily through its stormwater drains and the channelized Los Angeles River out into the Pacific Ocean. An estimated 100 billion gallons of water is lost every year in Los Angeles County.