Wildfires dealt heavy blow to LA-area tiny water districts, report says and recovery will be tough ...Middle East

Smaller water districts that serve local communities were hit hardest by the January wildfires, according to a UCLA report out Thursday, May 29.  All face “steep recovery challenges,” the report said.

The report comes from the UCLA Luskin Center, co-authored by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Stantec. Its authors found that while 11 community water systems — eight in the Eaton fire burn zone and three in the Palisades — performed adequately before the Jan. 7 Eaton and Palisades fires, some “now face major infrastructure loss and revenue disruption.”

“These fires tested the physical and financial limits of our water infrastructure,” said Gregory Pierce, co-director of the Luskin Center for Innovation in a statement accompanying the report. “We need to think not just about fixing pipes, but about re-designing systems and supporting populations that are more integrated, more equitable, and resilient to the next crisis.”

The report outlined a wide spectrum of damage to water systems across the region, ranging from storage and treatment facilities to hydrants and control valves to power infrastructure needed to move water to its end users.

On the low end of the damage, for instance, the city of Sierra Madre system issued an early temporary boil-water notice, but officials quickly stated that it “never lost system pressure in any water zone, and the city did not suffer any damage to its critical water infrastructure,” according to the report, citing district advisories at the time.

The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District also reported threats, but not damages, to critical infrastructure, noting that its system was operating “well under stress, maintaining water service to both customers and firefighters on the front lines.”

Researchers noted the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has estimated $76 million in damages — a number that could rise — as a percentage of total water enterprise operating revenues — $1.64 billion in 2024.

The cost, however, was deemed “not a large extent of damage.”

According to the report: “The more significant financial questions for LADWP center on two issues: (1) demands for enhanced wildfire-fighting water infrastructure and (2) potential legal liabilities for both water and power operations. While these may initially appear as one-time costs, they could ultimately affect LADWP’s credit ratings  and increase borrowing costs for future infrastructure investments,” according to the report.

Related: Altadena water companies grapple with future, as Eaton fire renews debate over consolidation

In Pasadena, damage to the city’s reservoirs and pump stations resulted in the need for “substantial” clearing of debris. The city temporarily suspended repayment requirements for impacted customers.

At the higher end of the toll, the report highlighted three Altadena water mutual companies — Las Flores, Lincoln, and Rubio Cañon — which all were hit hard by physical damage and loss of revenue.

At least six reservoirs were knocked out of service because of scorched roofs. There was major damage to electrical equipment at booster pump stations, pipes, meters, communication systems, and other essential infrastructure, according to the report.

“They are still using temporary operational measures to provide basic supply to some extent,” the report said. “Debris removal and theft also remain active challenges.”

Among the report’s key themes was the impact of revenue loss. For example, the Las Flores Water Company in Altadena lost 75% of its revenue base.

The report also found that the systems hit hardest by the disasters included those that serve Black and Latino communities.

The fires themselves, combined with the nearby Hughes fire, left 30 people dead while consuming more than 27,000 structures and forcing at least the temporary displacement of about 200,000 people. Economic losses are thought to be up to $250 billion.

In Altadena, the impact has rekindled a long-running debate over whether to consolidate Altadena’s decades old cluster of water companies.

Three mutual water companies — Las Flores, Lincoln Avenue and Rubio Cañon Land and Water Association — serve customers who are also shareholders in the companies. Pasadena Water and Power services a small portion of Altadena. The Kinneloa Irrigation District is a special district that operates water service for the Kinneloa Mesa neighborhood.

But even L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger has said no individual water district would be able to absorb the costs to rebuild their infrastructure and then integrate that into a massive rebuild of the area.

One major concern regarding impacts to water supply systems is how to pay for repairs to damaged infrastructure and restoring service in addition to investing in greater resilience.

The report noted that while federal and state funds may help, seven local and regional systems will likely remain partly — if not entirely — financially “self-dependent” to pay for repairs and hardening of their systems. And there’s also the fact that some of the systems are taking in much less revenue than normal because of the loss of their customer bases.

According to the report, before the fire, the several of the now-affected systems had some of the highest residential customer water bills in the county, reflecting the comparatively higher cost of service to provide water in these areas.

The highest residential customer bill among the impacted systems was found to be from the Kinneloa Irrigation District at $122.92 — more than 200% of the county average, according to the report. The district serves nearly 600 metered customers who live in single-family homes at the base of the Angeles National Forest.

“Paying water bills may become more difficult for some residents, as they experience income disruptions along with a range of other costs related to the fires,” according to the report.

The UCLA report also offered a unique overview of the scope of the water districts, which serve much of L.A. County, along with the demographics within such districts.

For instance, it noted that the communities served by the systems are comprised of mostly homeowners, with median household incomes well above the L.A. County average.

While 54% of L.A. County households rent and 46% own their homes, the burned areas reflect a very different pattern, according to the report: About 80% of fire-impacted households on the average were homeowners and only 20% were renters.

And while most of the impacted water systems serve majority non-Hispanic White populations, several water systems severely hit by the Eaton fire serve areas with much higher proportions of Black residents than the county average of 8%, including Las Flores Water Company (37%), Lincoln Avenue Water Company (30%) and Rubio Cañon Land and Water Association (11%), according to the report.

The fire affected the entire Pacific Palisades region and several surrounding communities, but relatively little of the city of Los Angeles.

The spectrum of districts impacted also offered a wide range, from the largest in the county, city of L.A.’s mammoth DWP, to very small, including the Kinneloa Irrigation District and Las Flores Water Co.

While Los Flores saw 88% of its service area in the Eaton burn zone, LADWP saw less than 5% of its service area burned, and proportionally less of its customer base impacted.

The report noted that Kinneloa has reported that its equipment did not suffer damage in the fire, and that customers had consistent water access. Lincoln Avenue’s reservoirs did suffer fire damage, but the damaged site supports operation of a surface water treatment plant, so water provision was not impacted.

Moving forward, the report stopped short of discussing the effectiveness of water supply for firefighting, system resilience planning for future wildfires and detailed drinking water system quality impacts.

Nonetheless, the researchers outlined several challenges that water suppliers will need to deal with.   They include:

–Protecting and rebuilding the system infrastructure;

–Treating post-fire contamination and cleaning water reservoirs; and

–Maintaining power and water access during a fire to provide critical support to firefighters.

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