SPECIAL FEATURES OF MEMBER AGENCY

Burbank joined Metropolitan as one of its 13 original cities.

Residential customers account for more than 80% of Burbank’s water meters and about 73% of water sales volume.  Burbank also has important commercial and industrial sectors.  Aerospace and motion picture industries were established by the 1930s.  The studios and other media businesses continue to stand out, along with health care, retail, and a busy airport.

Burbank has been a leader in the use of recycled water, beginning in 1967 with the use of recycled water in the municipal power plant cooling towers.  A $6 million expansion in the 1990s brought recycled water to the city landfill, two golf courses, and other landscape uses.  The Magnolia Power Project (2005) was designed to use recycled water throughout the plant, about 1500 acre-feet per year, which is 60% of the city’s total recycled water use.  The recycled water distribution system continues to grow, and a master plan will guide future expansion.

Burbank operates groundwater wells and a treatment plant, the Burbank Operable Unit (BOU), to pump and treat groundwater contaminated with volatile organic chemicals (VOCs).  The treated water is delivered for municipal use.

Burbank depends on MWD for its water supply.  Even the groundwater and recycled water begin as imported water.  Imported water must be stored in the underground basin in order for the city to continue operating the BOU.  We are working with MWD to develop a new connection to deliver untreated MWD water to existing spreading basins in the north San Fernando Valley.