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The Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant could soon have new state rules to follow.

Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, will introduce a new state bill in the coming weeks that would possibly require the wastewater recycling facility and its operator, Los Angeles Sanitation & Environment, to do more to mitigate odors caused by hydrogen sulfide, which have lingered for nearly two years.

Officials with LASAN and the city of Los Angeles have repeatedly say they are working hard to fix various issues and are eager to address odor complaints.

But El Segundo residents say they have been continually plagued by hydrogen sulfide odors since a July 2021 backup at Hyperion caused the facility to flood and spill millions of gallons of sewage into the ocean. The incident, officials said then, nearly crippled Hyperion, the region’s largest and oldest wastewater reclamation facility.

The potential legislation would expand on the Muratsuchi-authored Assembly Bill 1647 — which was enacted in 2017 and required oil refineries to install community and fence-line air quality monitors to keep track of toxic chemicals — to large wastewater facilities, such as Hyperion. Fence-line monitors are already in place around Hyperion’s perimeter, but adding monitors in neighborhoods would further allow officials to detect the odors residents continue to complain about.

“It’s a transparency and accountability measure to put pressure on Hyperion,” Muratsuchi said, “in hopes that Hyperion will do the right thing and address the problems.”

Muratsuchi will introduce the legislation, which is still currently unnumbered, as a spot — or placeholder — proposal before the Feb. 17 deadline to introduce new bills. He’ll introduce the official bill before committee hearings begin in March.

If all goes smoothly, the bill could be on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for consideration by September, Muratsuchi said. It would first need to get through committees and be passed by both the Assembly and state Senate.

Muratsuchi began looking into Hyperion in December after redistricting put the plant and El Segundo in his district, he said. But state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, had previously been talking with El Segundo and Hyperion officials about remedying the remaining effects of the spill.

“The bill’s important.” Allen said. “But the conversations with Hyperion are just as important.”

Allen said he would love to get a system in place to relieve El Segundo residents without a bill.

But Hyperion’s compliance record, he said, shows that this push may be needed.

“There’s been some progress,” Allen said. “But it’s a long term project.”

Hyperion had initially said it could meet a 2025 deadline to finish replacing all the corroded covers on its primary clarifiers — the main source of the odors — but Allen and his team got officials to agree to speed that up to the end of this year.

“That was just unacceptable,” Allen said. “These conversations make a difference; we’ve been asking them tons of questions so they know we’re paying close attention to this issue.”

The South Coast Air Quality Management District board also last added a new stack of conditions last month to an order of abatement it issued the facility in September to make officials there clear up the odors more quickly. Since the 2021 incident, AQMD has also hit Hyperion with multiple notices of violation.

During that January hearing, AQMD staff said that the majority of the odors seem to emanate from the primary clarifiers.

Officials representing Hyperion said during that hearing that would continue working to address the odoros and that they would comply with the updated terms.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the district to resolve this matter, to address the odor complaints,” Adena Hopenstand, deputy city attorney for Los Angeles, said at the time. “We believe this addresses odors and air quality first with an aggressive timeline, and hope with this, we can continue to work on regaining the public’s trust and confidence.”

Muratsuchi and Allen, meanwhile, are still having discussions with AQMD to understand what more legal authority it needs in order to really address the issues at Hyperion, the assemblymember said.

Besides the hydrogen sulfide odor, Muratsuchi said, El Segundo is particularly concerned about volatile organic compounds, or VOCs — like formaldehyde — and nitrogen oxides, or NOx.

“We want to make sure we’re detecting and protecting all surrounding communities,” Muratsuchi said, from “toxic chemicals that may be emitted from Hyperion.”

Folks in El Segundo, meanwhile, say they are still dealing with the effects every day.

“I filed complaints with Hyperion yesterday (Thursday, Feb. 9) and with AQMD, but Hyperion of course called me back — like they do every day — saying they are in compliance and they don’t detect any odors,” El Segundo resident Sarah Miszkowicz wrote in a Thursday email to AQMD, Los Angeles County officials, the media and members of the community. “They tell me that maybe it’s trash I’m smelling or the construction nearby.”

Miszkowicz added that she and her toddler both had headaches Thursday night and had to keep all their windows closed and air filters blasting.

Besides moving up Hyperion’s improvement timeline, legislators are also pushing to bring an independent investigator into the facility.

“We’re going to put pressure on Hyperion and force them to focus on this issue,” Allen said. “This is an issue they really need to take seriously and address.”

The RW Takeaway: Incredibly light yet plush, the Hyperion Max is an alternative to shoes with carbon-fiber or nylon plates. Testers said it made them feel fast and race-ready.

Preceded by:

Tech: Nitrogen-infused midsole cushioning, curved sole for propulsion (called Speed Roll), lightweight model built for speed sessions

Brooks is finally revealing a few additions to its Hyperion speed series. One is the cushy Hyperion Max, and it’s a real crowd-pleaser.

Rewind to 2019’s fall racing season. The RW gear team was in the throes of testing the hottest shoe releases before an Olympics year. Trailing Des Linden’s 2018 Boston Marathon win and speculation on what shoes she wore, Jeff Dengate ran the NYC Marathon in the Hyperion Tempo and I last-minute registered for the Philadelphia Marathon running in the Hyperion Elite. Results and assessments were divisive. While I finished seconds away from a PR, Dengate DNF’d and declared the Tempo’s midsoles too thin to support his six-foot frame.

The first Elite had DNA Zero foam, which was later replaced with the Tempo’s DNA Flash for a softer, bouncier ride. The Hyperion Max is the Tempo’s more cushioned, yet tenths-of-an-ounce-lighter, sibling. While their stretch woven uppers are the same, their rides are anything but. Brooks jacked up the Max’s midsole with four extra millimeters of nitrogen-infused DNA Flash for a springier but plusher ride. Inside word is this same foam will be in future Brooks Ghost and Glycerin models.

Testers said the Max is made for Sunday long runs, but it still feels fast. I can also see it as a plate-less, less-costly alternative to a true marathon racing shoe.

Testers’ Feedback

Rachel H. | Tester since 2022

Arch type: Flat | Pronation: Neutral | Footstrike: Heel

“This is a great shoe for faster runs. I wore them for a 5K road race and finished with a 19:06 time. I also wore them for a tempo workout with a two-mile warmup, three miles at 6:20 pace, then a two-mile cooldown at 7:30 pace. I plan on wearing them for tempos or fartleks and other road workouts. They’re okay to wear on a regular run, but I would not want to wear them everyday; I’d rather have more supportive training shoes for my easy runs. You can tell that these shoes are intended for quicker work.”

The Hyperion Max’s upper is taken from Brooks’s previous model, the Hyperion Tempo.

Teddy R. | Tester since 2022

Arch type: Flat | Footstrike: Midfoot

“What I like most about the Hyperion Max is how versatile it is. I could wear this shoe for almost every aspect of training. They were comfortable enough for runs up to nine miles and I could rip fast reps on the track with them. I liked how they were slim and quick, but still could be used as trainers. I often find that, with some daily trainers, it’s hard to do any faster-turnover work because they are too bulky and heavy. That was not the case with these shoes; they could do it all.”

Test Editor

Amanda is a test editor at Runner’s World who has run the Boston Marathon every year since 2013; she's a former professional baker with a master’s in gastronomy and she carb-loads on snickerdoodles. 

In the game’s upcoming third season, Bandai Namco will add a new playable Gundam unit to Gundam Evolution. Hyperion Gundam will join the roster as part of the content rollout for Gundam Evolution Season 3, titled “Defencer.” Season 3 will also include balance adjustments and kick off the “Hyper Update” period. This is a three-month sprint which will see the addition of more new playable units, events, and promotions.

Check out a preview of Hyperion Gundam in Gundam Evolution Season 3.

The trailer shows off the unit demonstrating its formidable defensive abilities. Hyperion Gundam uses a rapid-fire beam submachine gun to output damage at close range. Its “Forfanterie” shoulder beam cannons can fire a powerful beam that pierces enemies.

Hyperion Gundam in Gundam Evolution brings its unique “Armure Lumiere” lightwave barriers to the team dynamic, as well. The back-mounted shield generator deploys a one-way barrier that blocks enemy fire from all directions briefly, and moves with the unit. Its G-Maneuver ultimate attack causes the Hyperion to charge forward, pinning enemies on its lightwave shield, which has been reshaped into a pair of battering rams.

Outside of Gundam Evolution, the Hyperion Gundam was first seen in the Gundam SEED spinoff manga Mobile Suit Gundam SEED X Astray. The CAT1-X1/3 Hyperion Gundam was developed by the Eurasian Federation, part of Gundam SEED‘s Earth Alliance faction. The Eurasian Federation created it as part of an attempt to challenge the Atlantic Federation’s monopoly on mobile suit development. Based on the lightwave barrier technology seen defending the Earth Alliance asteroid base Artemis, the Hyperion was piloted by Canard Pars. He was an escaped Coordinator refugee with a dark connection to SEED protagonist Kira Yamato.

The Hyperion Gundam joins Gundam Evolution when Season 3 Defencer debuts on February 1, 2023. The game is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. Season 2, “Mobius”, launched the game on consoles and added the Nu Gundam from Char’s Counterattack to the roster.

The RW Takeaway: The long-awaited Catamount 2 has a plate in its midsole to add propulsion and supply you that competitive edge on the trail.

• Preceded by: Brooks Hyperion Tempo, Brooks Catamount
• Key tech: SkyVault plate, TrailTack rubber outsole, nitrogen-infused midsole foam
  
• Racing roster: Gear editor Amanda Furrer (me!), LVRR Ice Scraper 5K, 1st place women, 21:09
  

It’s been almost three years since Brooks released the

Now, finally, the second iteration is here, along with other shoes we’ve eagerly awaited—the Hyperion Tempo’s follow-up launches later this year—and a few surprises, like the Hyperion Max.

For some backstory, the Brooks Blue Line development team validated DNA Flash foam, the nitrogen-infused material that cushions the Hyperion Elite and Tempo. In this way, the Catamount, the first trail shoe with a DNA Flash midsole, was one-part super shoe with its responsive, high-energy return platform. Now Brooks adds a second ingredient: the SkyVault plate.

We’ve seen carbon-fiber plates in other trail shoes, including the Hoka Tecton X, which has two parallel plates in its midsole, and the Saucony Edge. The Catamount 2’s SkyVault is specially made for providing enhanced proficiency on the uphill and a smooth and stable ride on the descent, making it primed for rolling trails. The plate is curved in the forefoot to help propel you quicker off your toes on the ascents. It also doubles as a rock shield.

Lightweight for Fast Times

Testers liked the shoe’s pop, describing the ride as “fast and fun.” Some, however, said it traded support for a lighter weight. “My current go-to is the Caldera 6, which has a mattress-like midsole,” said a tester. “So, I wasn’t surprised I was feeling more of the ground with the Catamount 2.”

Testers found the TrailTack rubber outsole “super grippy” on wet logs and in freezing rain. I experienced this reliable grip during a 5K, mid-December, on a morning damp with flurries and nonstop drizzle.

One note on fit: The Catamount runs a tad long, and is slightly narrow compared to other Brooks shoes.

DNA Flash provides moderately soft cushioning and high energy return.

Testers’ Feedback

Adrian S. | Tester since 2021

Arch type: High | Pronation: Neutral | Footstrike: Midfoot

“The Brooks Catamount 2 is a fast and fun shoe. It will certainly be a consideration for my future trail races shorter than a half marathon. I wore it on several trails with a little bit of every surface. It excelled and gave me some nice ‘pop’ on technical courses. I would be curious to try a half-size smaller since it felt a little long. The sizing issue made tying a lace lock essential, but after that, I was fully locked-in and my toes appreciated the extra toebox room.

“There was a bit of a tradeoff for lightness when it came to cushioning. My current go-to training trail shoe is the Brooks Caldera 6, which has a mattress-like midsole. So, I wasn’t surprised that I was feeling more of the ground in the Catamount 2. However, the ‘trail feel’ is welcome when my legs are fresh.”

Renee H. | Tester since 2013

Arch type: Medium | Pronation: Neutral | Footstrike: Midfoot

“I tested the Catamount 2 on every type of surface and trail—rocks, dirt, gravel, mountains, creek crossings. These shoes performed great. I felt secure as my feet blazed through the singletrack trails and I never missed a beat jumping from rock to rock on the technical stuff. Great traction, cushioning, and grip. Right out of the box, the Catamount 2 was comfortable and made my long runs in the woods feel faster and more efficient.”

Test Editor

Amanda is a test editor at Runner’s World who has run the Boston Marathon every year since 2013; she's a former professional baker with a master’s in gastronomy and she carb-loads on snickerdoodles. 

© Provided by Collider

It seems that, now more than ever, literary works that have historically been deemed "unfilmable" have begun to turn a page and make their way to the big screen. Between Lord of the Rings, Watchmen, and most recently Dune, filmmakers have found more ways than ever to adapt the long form narratives of novels without losing too many main story beats. Fans of genre fiction have seen many large scale sci-fi, fantasy, and horror staples make their ways to the big screen, but one that is still floating around in development purgatory is Dan Simmons' 1989 novel Hyperion.

Hyperion has everything that both audiences and Hollywood executives are looking for in an epic sci-fi tale. It is peppered with action set pieces, a sprawling cast of characters, and a fantastic villain looming over everything. It also just happens to have an incredibly dense and complex story, one chock-full of multiple timelines running both forwards and backwards (yes -- backwards), religious and philosophical themes, rich character studies, and a hefty amount of world building. Needless to say, it's a project that would take a real maestro to crack. Over the last couple of decades, a number of creative figures have tried their hand at Simmons' novel, but we are still yet to see an adaptation successfully make its way off the ground. If done right, we just might have another mass-media franchise on our hands in Hyperion.

RELATED: Bradley Cooper's 'Hyperion' Adaptation Shifts from SYFY Series to Warner Bros. Film

What is 'Hyperion'?

The Hyperion Cantos are a series of four novels written by Simmons, with the first of these being Hyperion, and let me tell you, if there was ever a tough novel to try and describe in a concise manner, it would be this one. It's the story of seven pilgrims traveling to the planet of Hyperion, with each of them looking for the answers to unsolved events in their lives. Not only does the first novel in the series closely follow a group of seven characters, but its entire structure is essentially divvied up into short stories that deep dive into the individuals characters' backgrounds. Almost all of these stories share the appearance of a mysterious figure called The Shrike, a mythical and murderous creature on Hyperion that is worshiped by some and hunted by others. The Shrike keeps itself busy, teleporting all over the planet, killing anyone and everyone that it pleases, while also guarding the Time Tombs, a place where time moves backwards. The seven pilgrims' stories explain the reasons they were chosen to go to Hyperion and, specifically, the Time Tombs. Does this sound like a lot? It almost certainly does, but with the room that a novel provides writers to play in, this story reads fairly smooth. That's where things get tricky for an on-screen adaptation.

Over the last few decades, there have been a number of filmmakers circling Hyperion's big break into the world of film. In the early 2000s, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio were heavily rumored to being attached to a series adaptation, followed by James Cameron's supposed interest. In 2009, the project ended up falling into the hands of Scott Derrickson, who had plans to cobine the original novel and its first sequel, The Fall of Hyperion, into one film. If you've read these books, you'd know that this endeavor would just about be impossible. This proved to be true, with Derrickson's film never coming to fruition. In 2011, Bradley Cooper grabbed a hold of the adaptation and has chipped away at it ever since. Cooper started out aiming for a movie, then a mini-series for the Syfy channel, and as of 2021, has since refocused his efforts theatrically and is planning on making Hyperion into a movie over at Warner Bros. -- the same studio that brought Denis Villeneuve's Dune to the big screen.

While memorizing Hyperion and experiencing its complex narrative, it truly feels like the unadaptable novel of all unadaptable novels. It's a story that features time moving both forwards and backwards, storylines that take place across a galaxy, and a main storyline that's split up into seven flashback stories, each of which are so dense that it's hard to imagine anything being cut from them for time's sake. If the adapter really wanted to bring the entirety of the novel to life, the best bet just might be to aim for TV. We've seen this done with Game of Thrones, as well as large scale, sprawling shows like The Rings of Power. TV has way more room to play a story out than a movie does, with creators being given the freedom to write as many episodes as they need to in order to tell their story right. It wouldn't be the easiest job, but you could feasibly adapt Hyperion for TV without having to cut too many corners. Movies are where things get sticky.

Maybe 'Hyperion' Isn't Unadaptable After All

For most of film history, the idea of adapting a book like Hyperion as just one single film seemed impossible. This would still be the case, had Peter Jackson not absolutely crushed it with his Lord of the Rings trilogy. The original books that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote had been deemed unfilmable for years and years, yet Jackson found a way to crack the code and make three novels as big as those fit into three (huge) films. These weren't just three films that limped their way into theaters -- they rocked the world and are widely considered some of the greatest films of all time. Recently, the first half of the colossal epic that is Dune was adapted and highly acclaimed, with its second half hitting theaters this fall. These films prove that the first Hyperion novel can be made into a film, whether it gets split up into several parts or is kept as one big old mammoth of a sci-fi film! Just add a dash of Alien, a lick of Prometheus, a bit of Memento, sprinkle in some of The Matrix, and a dose of Silence, and you've got Hyperion! Good luck, Bradley Cooper!

With Hyperion's different storylines ebbing and weaving in and out of the main plot, it's a film that would take on an assortment of different tones. While Hyperion is primarily a sci-fi novel, it dips its toes into many other genres throughout its pages. It'll flip on a dime between sci-fi, fantasy, romance, adventure, and even horror, with loads of tension and unshakable images along the way. The Shrike in particular is a force that you can see audiences becoming both fascinated and terrified of, a character that would absolutely thrive in a cinematic landscape. With the variety of stories that can be successful becoming greater and greater, it doesn't seem too out of this world that Hyperion could attract a large audience and become a big success.

When the day comes that the Hyperion adaptation eventually gets off the ground, it seems as though its filmmakers will have enough other successful adaptations to look to as a source of inspiration. Audiences have never been so willing to embrace these types of immense genre stories, so why not supply Simmons' original novel its own movie or TV show? If placed in the hands of a Jackson or Villeneuve type, filmmakers tailored fit for bringing mammoth books to life, then we'll have something truly special on our hands. Here's hoping that, eventually, Hyperion makes it to the big screen, and its years of being deemed an unfilmable novel will be left in the past.

The Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant still isn’t doing enough to mitigate odors coming from the facility, according to the region’s air quality watchdog.

Los Angeles Sanitation & Environment, which oversees the wastewater treatment facility near El Segundo, now has a longer list of rules to abide by as it works to rid the area of a regular sewage smell that has plagued residents for about a year-and-a-half — and a shorter amount of time in which to do so.

That’s because the South Coast Air Quality Management District board this week added new conditions to the facility’s order of abatement after receiving an update on Hyperion’s progress.

El Segundo residents say they have been continually plagued by hydrogen sulfide odors since a July 2021 sewage spill and flooding at Hyperion, which nearly crippled the region’s largest and oldest wastewater reclamation facility. Since that incident, AQMD has hit Hyperion with multiple notices of violation and has ordered officials there to reduce the stench.

That Sept. 8 order required LASAN to implement a complaint response program with a 24/7 hotline, conduct regular odor patrols, increase the number of air quality monitoring stations and the gases they monitor, and repair broken equipment, some of which had been done by late last year.

Larger, longer-term fixes are still in the works, however, and the complaint system, odor patrols and air monitoring haven’t made things any better, according to AQMD; because the odor remains, AQMD added 25 new conditions that, the agency said, “would have the greatest impact in mitigating odors in the quickest amount of time.”

Hyperion now has to implement proper ventilation at the primary clarifiers when covers are removed, install pressure gauges at those clarifiers, put in windbreaks to prevent odors from flowing into the residential community, keep truck doors closed at loading facilities, provide maintenance proof reports, conduct community sampling for toxic compounds and lower the hydrogen sulfide memorizing threshold from 27 parts per billion to 15 ppb, among other new requirements.

The facility also has earlier deadlines to get all the work done, with the overall completion date moving from 2026 to the end of this year.

Rep. Ted Lieu, meanwhile, secured $3.4 million in federal funds in December for a Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant Modernization project, part of a $22 million sum coming to the county for different local projects.

LASAN representatives agreed to the updated terms during the six-hour hearing on Wednedsay, Jan. 25, and said they will work to meet the new deadlines.

“Expediting (the process) will take it to at least half the time,” said LASAN environmental engineer Majid Sadegih, who oversees the air pollution control division.

Michal Haynes, an air quality inspector with AQMD, said the agency has issued Hyperion 16 notices of violation since the September abatement order, two of which were after a Dec. 15 hearing.

AQMD received 142 odor complaints from residents in December, Haynes added, and 83 so far this month.

As far as Hyperion’s compliance with the first set of conditions, Haynes said, AQMD issued Hyperion a violation on Jan. 17 for not being able to confirm that information is inputted in the complaint system, and one on Jan. 7 for using unapproved equipment to monitor hydrogen sulfide levels.

During site visits, AQMD staff noticed that the majority of the odors seem to emanate from the primary clarifiers, said Angela Shibata, senior air quality engineering manager for the watchdog. The lower odor threshold, she said, will enable Hyperion to identify issues before they become long-term ones.

Even after the clarifiers are washed, odors are still present, Shibata added. And even though Hyperion is currently replacing the clarifier covers, that process takes a while because three of the four tanks must be operable at the same time.

That means only one can be worked on at a time.

One of the covers has been replaced, while the other three are still in the works.

AQMD will now also require routine inspections on the clarifier tank covers to make sure future ones don’t wear down as much as the old ones did.

But the AQMD board wants to hear from LASAN in the next hearing about why Hyperion’s standard operating procedures and regular maintenance schedule allowed for the primary tank covers — which are likely up to 15 years old, according to Sadegih — to become corroded beyond use.

“Part of our concern is the facility isn’t doing those things (that) should’ve been done much earlier before it becomes a problem,” Shibata said. “The degradation (of the clarifier) equipment makes us wonder what their other equipment is like.”

The next status hearing is June 20.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the district to resolve this matter, to address the odor complaints,” said Adena Hopenstand, deputy city attorney for Los Angeles. “We believe this addresses odors and air quality first with an aggressive timeline, and hope with this, we can continue to work on regaining the public’s trust and confidence.”