Backup power and full water tanks should be required in face of wildfire, lawmaker says
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It’s been more than seven years since fire hydrants in southern Ventura County rapidly ran dry as the Thomas fire exploded — something Assemblymember Steve Bennett hoped he would never see repeated.
But in November, firefighters again found themselves short on water as the Mountain fire roared through the foothills of Camarillo. Officials later confirmed that at least one water pump there was offline for almost nine hours before it was connected to backup power. Power losses also left area water pumps useless for hours during the 2017 Thomas fire. Pumps are needed to refill high-elevation tanks to maintain water pressure.
“I thought, after the Thomas fire, all water districts would put in backup generators,” Bennett said.
But that was not the case.
After hydrants also ran dry this fire season during the two major conflagrations that devastated Los Angeles County, Bennett said he felt there was no time to wait. He began drafting legislation, which he introduced this week, that would require specific improvements for water systems in areas at high risk of fire, including having backup generators for water pumps and ensuring that water districts have all tanks at full capacity ahead of fire weather.
Firefighters in Pacific Palisades and Altadena have repeatedly been hampered by low water pressure and dry hydrants, revealing limitations in local water systems designed to supply neighborhoods.
“We have to come up with a way to require these best practices,” he said. “If we don’t do something, we’re going to continue to have these serious wildfire events.”
Bennett’s bill, AB 367, would require such standards only in Ventura County — where he began his research on the issue after the Thomas and Mountain fires — but he also plans to introduce legislation that could expand the requirements statewide. The Mountain fire ended up destroying more than 100 structures, the majority of which were homes. In the Thomas fire, two people died and more than 1,000 structures were lost.
The measure would not solve California’s escalating problem of increasingly destructive and costly fires, he acknowledged, but he said it was a start.
“This is the beginning of trying to focus on one thing: how we can decrease losses in the future,” said Bennett, a Ventura County Democrat who was a county supervisor at the time of the Thomas fire. “We know fire hydrants will lose pressure or fail during massive wind-driven fires, but we should ensure we keep them operating as effectively and as long as possible.”
He said he wrote separate bills for his county and the rest of the state because he knew it would be more difficult to pass such a bill statewide and wanted to act quickly for his constituents.
Think of a community water system as a local coffee shop that usually sells 300 cups a day. A shop like that just couldn’t fulfill an unexpected order for 40,000 cups.
“We burn so much more frequently and we have [more than] 125 water districts,” Bennett said. “We need the standardization as soon as possible.”
The bill sets new requirements for water providers in high-fire-risk zones that serve at least 20 residences. It would require such water districts to have backup power that could keep pumps working after a planned or unplanned power outage; to top off any water tanks following a notification from county emergency officials about dangerous weather conditions; to commit to annual reviews to ensure water infrastructure meets “fire safety standards”; and to submit reports after a significant fire assessing the water system’s role.
“After each fire, we learn a little more about how to be better prepared,” Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks) said in a statement. Irwin is co-author of the bill.
These measures, if implemented, wouldn’t guarantee a system doesn’t have dry hydrants during a major firefight, Bennett said, but “they shouldn’t run out faster than they have to.”
During the first hours of the Mountain fire, officials determined that at least two water pumps became ineffective, one because it was destroyed in the blaze and the other because it lost power during a planned power outage. Crestview Mutual Water Co. reported to its water wholesaler that the pump was out from 2 p.m. until 11 p.m., when a generator was finally hooked up. It’s still not clear what effect those issues had on the fire.
Fire officials have continued to explain that their crews prepare for water pressure and supply issues because urban water systems are not designed with the capacity to fight major conflagrations. In these situations, firefighters often use tanker trucks, or draw water from other sources, such as pools and reservoirs.
At the time, the devastation the Mountain fire caused in the Camarillo area was Southern California’s most destructive fire in years. Then the Palisades and Eaton firestorms blasted through Los Angeles County.
In both blazes, water supply issues challenged firefighters, although experts and fire officials have repeatedly said that no residential or community water system could have provided enough water to fight these erratic, wind-driven infernos. Such high demand will strain any such system, especially at higher elevations, they say.
“There’s no urban water system that could have effectively put out those fires,” said Max Gomberg, a senior policy advisor for the California Water Impact Network, which advocates for the sustainable and equitable use of water resources. “But there are ways to reduce the risk.”
In the Eaton fire — which claimed 17 lives and destroyed more than 9,000 structures in and around Altedena — firefighters reported that power shutoffs affected water supply. Details about the extent of those issues and their effect are still under investigation.
“Power redundancy, power resiliency is going to help in most fires — nearly every fire,” said Gregory Pierce, director of the UCLA Water Resources Group, which works to address water challenges in California and across the globe. There was likely some backup generation utilized in the area during the Eaton fire, he said, but more “definitely would have helped.”
A reservoir in the Palisades that holds 117 million gallons of water was offline this month for previously scheduled maintenance.
Pierce pointed out, however, that power shutoffs do not appear to have been an issue in the Palisades firefight, where almost 7,000 structures were destroyed in and around Pacific Palisades and 12 people were killed.
Still, The Times found that firefighters there also dealt with low water pressure and dry hydrants as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power struggled to keep up with demand. Officials also had left empty a nearby reservoir that could have boosted water supply. Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered an independent investigation of how the city handled water resources before and during the blaze.
But experts told The Times that new requirements for water providers could make sense, especially in Ventura County given how frequently the region loses power during Santa Ana wind events. During such incidents, public utilities will shut off power to reduce the risk of electrical equipment igniting fires.
Gomberg noted, however, that the bill has no funding, and implementing the improvements would likely cost ratepayers. Bennett acknowledged that possibility, but said he hopes any rate hike would be reasonable and residents would understand its importance. He is also working to secure state funding that could defray the expense.
But for smaller water providers and their customers, it could be a heavy load. A backup generator can cost upwards of $500,000, excluding the cost of installation, said Ian Prichard, the deputy general manager for Calleguas Municipal Water District, a wholesale water provider that works with several smaller water districts in the Camarillo area.
“It feels like water agencies, in this regard, are having to pick up the liability that Edison is shedding,” Prichard said.
Prichard and Gomberg also pointed out that this bill only addresses a sliver of the many challenges related to the state’s vast and aging water infrastructure.
“These are difficult choices,” Gomberg said, “because you’ve got to weigh how much fire risk reduction you get from these investments versus the immediate everyday impacts to people’s ability to pay.”
Pierce said he found some of the details in the bill concerning, such as how certain thresholds were chosen, but still, he called the bill a “decent start” for finding ways to improve water systems in the face of worsening fires.
“There’s still a lot of work to do here,” Pierce said. “I think there has to be more guidance on funding, or at least more best practices and resources for how small or even very large systems can fund these types of interventions.”
Times staff writers Matt Hamilton and Ian James contributed to this report.
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