PLAYA DEL REY (CNS) - New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker praised the role the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in Playa Del Rey is playing in Los Angeles' efforts to recycle 100 percent of its wastewater by 2035.
“Not only are they dealing with the energy crisis, not only are they dealing with cleaning the water, not only are they lowering the carbon footprint of this area, but they're creating jobs, good living wage jobs right here,” Booker said after touring the facility with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Earth Day. They have been friends since they were both Rhodes Scholars in the 1990s.
“This is an incredible example of what's possible in this country if we have leadership that focuses on making sure that we have a nation of green pastures, greener tomorrows.”
Hyperion, the largest treatment plant west of the Mississippi River, receives 81 percent of the city's total wastewater and recycles 27 percent of the water that flows into the facility, Garcetti's office said in February when the mayor announced a goal of Los Angeles recycling 100 percent of its wastewater by 2035 as part of an effort to reduce the city's dependence on imported water.
Roughly $2 billion in improvements to the facility are planned over the next 16 years to help meet the goal.
The tour was part of the “Justice for All Tour” in which Booker speaks to communities about the injustices they face during his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. He will discuss additional plans to address key environmental issues later this week in South Carolina, an aide said.
Booker is scheduled to be in Milwaukee on Tuesday to lead a roundtable discussion with gun violence prevention advocates.
Booker was among two candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination in Los Angeles on Monday. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang held a rally in Pershing Square.
Booker announced his candidacy Feb. 1 in a video sent to supporters.
After recounting how real estate agents would not sell his parents a home in a neighborhood with better schools because they were black, Booker recalled how “a group of white lawyers who had watched the courage of civil rights activists were inspired to help black families in their own community, including mine.”
“They changed the course of my entire life,” said Booker, who will turn 50 on Saturday.
Booker received a football scholarship to Stanford and received bachelor's and master's degrees there. He was also a Rhodes Scholar, receiving a master's degree in U.S. history from The Queen's College at Oxford University in England. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1997.
Following law school, Booker moved into a public housing project in Newark, New Jersey, “where he teamed up with the other tenants to take on a slumlord accused of intentional neglect of the property and won,” according to biographical information supplied by his campaign.
Booker was elected to the Municipal Council of Newark in 1998, defeating a four-term incumbent. He unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2002, but was elected in 2006, serving until 2013, when he won the special election to fill the Senate seat of the late Frank Lautenberg.
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