In order for water to be piped uphill to hydrants in Pacific Palisades, it is collected in a reservoir, pumped into three million-gallon, high-elevation storage tanks, then propelled by gravity into homes and fire hydrants.
DWP spokesman Bowen Xie said the agency had filled its 114 water storage tanks before the blaze, but after the Palisades Fire erupted on Tuesday, water demand quadrupled in the area, lowering the pressure required to refill the three local storage tanks.
By 4:45 p.m., the first of the three tanks ran out of water, said Janisse Quiñones, DWP’s chief executive and chief engineer. The second tank ran empty about 8:30 p.m., and the third at 3 a.m. Wednesday.
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Marty Adams, former general manager and chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, [...] said the agency’s water pump-and-storage system, like others nationwide, was designed to meet fire protection standards based on the water needed to battle fires at several homes or businesses, not wildfires that consume whole neighborhoods.
“None of that’s ever been based on the entire neighborhood going up. If that’s the new norm, that’s something that’s got to be figured in,” he said. “Nobody designs a domestic water system for that. It would be so overbuilt and so expensive.”
Adams said the water system has done “what it was designed for pretty successfully, but it couldn’t do everything. The system probably delivered more water than it was designed to deliver, but it couldn’t deliver an infinite amount.”
He said water pressure issues could be addressed by adding more or larger pipes, or officials could add temporary water storage. “If we’re fighting a different kind of fire, we have to think about a different kind of system,” he said.
The context is so important. The splashy headlines that imply the system was in disrepair or not planned out are distressing. The real crisis is that we had an incredibly robust system and it was...
The context is so important. The splashy headlines that imply the system was in disrepair or not planned out are distressing. The real crisis is that we had an incredibly robust system and it was still overwhelmed. Despite that it held out for 15 hours during which time there was zero air support and the strongest winds the area has ever seen.
That's always been a problem with journalism. It's way worse now because social media is leveraged to magnify lies for political gain. Evil assholes like Musk and Trump are propagating dangerous...
That's always been a problem with journalism. It's way worse now because social media is leveraged to magnify lies for political gain. Evil assholes like Musk and Trump are propagating dangerous lies about the wildfires and everything else.
Climate crisis?? But all the rich people are saying it's fine? And I've seen a bunch of people online saying it was cold this summer where they live. Ultimately I have to conclude that NASA and...
Here as well. That being said, the "it's cold/hot where I am" argument is inherently incorrect, because unless you are looking at the data for every place at once you are not getting a complete...
Here as well. That being said, the "it's cold/hot where I am" argument is inherently incorrect, because unless you are looking at the data for every place at once you are not getting a complete picture.
Instead of a hot summer we had an extremely early spring and a very mild winter. This coming after several mild winters and early springs. I haven't met someone in a while that outright denies...
Instead of a hot summer we had an extremely early spring and a very mild winter. This coming after several mild winters and early springs.
I haven't met someone in a while that outright denies climate change, instead they say either "I'm not convinced it's us causing it" or "even if we did cause it, it's too late to do anything about it". The climate change in my area feels so obvious.
It seems fair to say that the city was unprepared for the climate crisis we actually have, and at the same time, the water system was no worse than most other cities. Maybe it means the standards...
It seems fair to say that the city was unprepared for the climate crisis we actually have, and at the same time, the water system was no worse than most other cities.
Maybe it means the standards need to be raised, as has happened in other places in response to hurricanes and earthquakes.
Officials said that the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been closed since about February for repairs to its cover, leaving a 117-million-gallon water storage complex empty in the heart of the Palisades for nearly a year.
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Emptying of the reservoir began in February after a tear in the floating cover measuring several feet allowed debris, bird droppings and other objects to enter the water supply. DWP drained the site to avoid contamination and comply with water regulations.
DWP sought bids for the repair in April, at a cost of up to $89,000. In November, the utility signed off on a contract with a Lakeside firm for about $130,000, records show.
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Joseph Ramallo, a chief communications officer for DWP, said the reservoir was scheduled to reopen in February.
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Had the Santa Ynez Reservoir been in use in that period, Adams estimated, that demand might have been just three times as high. Water in the reservoir would have fed the firefighting equipment and helped the pump stations push water to the storage tanks. But the reservoir “wouldn’t have lasted forever and would not have been a fix-all,” Adams said.
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Adams said that if the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been in normal use with a fully repaired cover, the water level would likely have been well below maximum capacity.
In the winter, water levels are kept purposely lower because of a seasonal decline in water use by residents. If water remains stagnant in a reservoir, there is a risk that chloramine, the chemical used as a disinfectant, will break down and chlorine will evaporate, leaving behind ammonia that could foster bacterial growth in the water supply.
From the article:
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The context is so important. The splashy headlines that imply the system was in disrepair or not planned out are distressing. The real crisis is that we had an incredibly robust system and it was still overwhelmed. Despite that it held out for 15 hours during which time there was zero air support and the strongest winds the area has ever seen.
This is a climate crisis.
Scandal leads, reason lags.
That's always been a problem with journalism. It's way worse now because social media is leveraged to magnify lies for political gain. Evil assholes like Musk and Trump are propagating dangerous lies about the wildfires and everything else.
Climate crisis??
But all the rich people are saying it's fine? And I've seen a bunch of people online saying it was cold this summer where they live.
Ultimately I have to conclude that NASA and the UN are liars, and potentially communists.
(/s)
Cold this past summer? It was blazing hot basically for six months straight here.
Here as well. That being said, the "it's cold/hot where I am" argument is inherently incorrect, because unless you are looking at the data for every place at once you are not getting a complete picture.
Instead of a hot summer we had an extremely early spring and a very mild winter. This coming after several mild winters and early springs.
I haven't met someone in a while that outright denies climate change, instead they say either "I'm not convinced it's us causing it" or "even if we did cause it, it's too late to do anything about it". The climate change in my area feels so obvious.
It seems fair to say that the city was unprepared for the climate crisis we actually have, and at the same time, the water system was no worse than most other cities.
Maybe it means the standards need to be raised, as has happened in other places in response to hurricanes and earthquakes.
State to probe why Pacific Palisades reservoir was offline, empty when firestorm exploded (LA Times)
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