What if the Valley could have multiple wells placed around the city in contingent locations for maximum water replenishment back into the Aquifer?

Liquifying Aquifers, by Lujac Desautel

The story of water in the San Fernando Valley is the by-product of the American frontier to the West and the seemingly unattainable ambitions to protect the mythicized image of lush palm trees and turquoise swimming pools. But, the illusion of water is on the cusp of extinction.

The San Fernando Valley is conceptualized as an archipelago of islands characterized by the infrastructures that sever its own territories. In between these forgotten corridors are the conduits, transportation networks, and energy easements that are a crutch to the livelihood of the Valley.

The largest of these corridors, the Tujunga Wash cuts the valley in half by a 13 mile artificial river that sends every drop of water to the Pacific Ocean. Its adjacencies are anything but monotonous, rich, poor, industrial, mega malls, and the endless repetition of four-way intersections.

The San Fernando Groundwater Basin sits 40 feet below the surface, continually being over withdrawed by a water hungry city without any large-scale plan to replenish this invaluable commodity. As population growth continues to rise, there will be less space and more hardscapes and a significant amount of runoff water which will go unused unless harnessed by a strategic system that works within the existing urban conditions of infrastructures, easements and parking lots.

What if the Valley could have multiple drains placed around the city in contingent locations for maximum water replenishment back into the Aquifer? Like a giant bathtub with a conglomerate of drains! The symbiosis of Liquifying Aquifers through public domain and water infrastructure aims to localize aquifer replenishment and operate to community specific needs.

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