Battling Over Bathwater

Greywater Technopolitics in Los Angeles

Bibliographic Data

ID2263231
AuthorsSayd Randle (0000-0003-3252-379X, S.V. Ciriacy‐Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow University of California Berkeley)
Year2021
Volume33
Issue3
Pages444-466
Publication date2021-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCity & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0893-0465 • E-ISSN: 1548-744X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ciso.12414
OpenAlexW3213322657
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited30

In Los Angeles, domestic wastewater recycling ("greywater") systems are controversial, loved by local environmentalists and disdained by the city's water agencies. Drawing on fieldwork among greywater advocates and public water agency workers, this article examines how greywater systems function as nodes that unsettle relations between residents and the public agencies that manage the city's water grid. Elaborating the longstanding frictions over greywater reuse in LA reveals how these fixtures are mobilized by advocates to rescript the roles of both individuals and the state within the urban waterscape. Detailing public agency workers' resistance to this form of selective disconnection from the grid helps to clarify the patterns of flows, norms of consumption, and forms of state control at stake in efforts to decentralize arrangements of urban water management

Wastewater Treatment and Reuse · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies

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