West Coast Points
A Linear Portrait from North to South
The Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant is the largest of the coastal sewage plants that discharge into the Pacific Ocean. It serves most of the city of Los Angeles, and is located between Los Angeles International Airport, and the company town of El Segundo (built for the workers of Chevrons’ second west coast refinery, which looms over the south side of town). Each of the major cities on the coast, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, have one primary sewage plant, with smaller ones serving the surrounding communities. Like the others, the outfall pipe at Hyperion runs for a few miles out to sea, and is visible only where it breaks the water on the beach.
In the CLUI Los Angeles Exhibit Hall July-September, 2003.
From the original announcement for the exhibit: "As part of its contribution to an upcoming exhibit called Baja to Vancouver , which will be travelling to a number of art museums (from Baja to Vancouver) starting later this year, the CLUI has been examining the landscape along the West Coast of the United States. Field researchers from the Center have been filling in the gaps in the Center’s photographic and text archives, completing a study of the land use of the West Coast of the United States - the coastal line itself. This exhibit features some samples from this research, serving as a portrait of this liminal landscape, where America flares up, then falls into the sea."
Depending on who you ask, the West Coast is 1,200 miles long, as a minimum, or 8,000 miles long, if you include the bays and estuaries up to the head of tide. Even though we know it must have some finite length, there is, in truth no way to accurately measure the length of the coast. How minutely do you measure the facets of each peninsula, each rock, or each grain of sand? Continue reading from the newsletter article.
As part of its contribution to an upcoming exhibit, called Baja to Vancouver, which will be travelling to a number of art museums (from Baja to Vancouver) starting later this year, the CLUI has been examining the landscape along the West Coast of the United States. Field researchers from the Center have been filling in the gaps in the Center’s photographic and text archives, completing a study of the land use of West Coast of the United States - the coastal line itself. The catalog for this exhibit is available in the CLUI store.
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