Governor Newsom Orders Investigation Into Los Angeles Water Supply, Fire Hydrant Pressure

California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered an investigation into the Los Angeles Department of Water of Power (LADWP) on Friday following numerous instances of fire hydrants having no water and limited water when fighting the wildfires around Los Angeles.

Since January 7th, Los Angeles County has continued to be devastated by several wildfires blazing in different areas of the county. This includes the Palisades Fire, which is currently at around 22,000 acres and has resulted in 5 deaths, over 40,000 to be evacuated, and 5,300 destroyed structures, and the Eaton Fire, which is currently over 13,600 acres and has caused 6 deaths, 100,000 to be evacuated, and roughly 1,000 destroyed structures. The Palisades fire is also currently at about 8% containment, with Eaton at about 3% containment.

Throughout the week, the lack of water in LADWP storage tanks for events such as wildfires have hurt rescue and firefighting efforts, leading fire crews to experience lower pressure in hydrants and a severe strain on the system. As a result, many hydrants had little to no water come out when tapped for use because of water pressure severely dropping. Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) officials have said that higher elevation areas have struggled to get water as water tanks have run dry. This has been because of the high demand, the constant use in the past several days, and the tanks being only so big. One such reservoir, the Santa Ynez reservoir, was even found to be both empty and offline during the fires.

“Due to multiple questions on the topic, we did experience some challenges with water pressure while battling the Pacific Palisades Fire,” said LAFD PIO Erik Scott on X. “LADWP proactively filled all available water storage tanks, including three 1-million-gallon tanks located in the Palisades area. However, water availability was impacted at higher elevations, which affected some fire hydrants due to limited replenishment of water tanks in those areas. The extreme demand caused a slower refill rate for these tanks which created a challenge for our firefighting effort.”

LADWP CEO Janisse Quinones added that “By 3 a.m. on January 8, all 1-million-gallon water storage tanks that supply the Palisades hydrants went dry. Of those three tanks, the first ran dry just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, the second before 9 p.m. and the third early Wednesday morning. We had tremendous demand on our systems in the Palisades. We pushed the system to the extreme. Four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight, which lowered our water pressure.”

Despite the explanation, Governor Newsom ordered an investigation into the LADWP on Friday, specifically looking into the loss of water pressure and water mobility. In a statement on X, Governor Newsom’s press office said that “While overall water supply in Southern California is not an issue, water mobility in the initial response was an issue. That is why Governor Newsom has ordered a full, independent review of LADWP. This cannot happen again.”

In a letter to Quinones and L.A. County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella, Newsom wrote that “From the moment firestorms erupted in Los Angeles County on Tuesday, January 7, it was clear our public infrastructure would be put under tremendous strain.

“The ongoing reports of the loss of water pressure to some local fire hydrants during the fires and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir are deeply troubling to me and to the community. While water supplies from local fire hydrants are not designed to extinguish wildfires over large areas, losing supplies from fire hydrants likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors.

“We need answers to how that happened. Therefore, I have directed state water and firefighting officials to prepare an independent after-incident report examining the causes of lost water supply and water pressure in municipal water systems during the fire events, and to identify measures that local governments can implement to provide adequate water supply for emergency response during future catastrophic events.

“I request that LADWP and Los Angeles County officials swiftly prepare a comprehensive review examining their local preparation and response procedures to ensure available water supply for emergencies, and document any causes of the loss of water pressure and unavailability of water supplies.”

With the LADWP now under investigation over the low-pressure, some have charged that Newsom, as well as the heavily criticized Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass, are now trying to deflect blame on state and city water policies.

“On one side of the coin, yes, the water pressure failure was a huge factor,” said Jack Wesley, a water systems consultant for farms and multi-family homes, to the Globe on Friday. “That has been a serious problem during the fires. But on the other side, Newsom and Bass had some policies in place of water usage that were other factors in the fires. You can’t put all your blame to just the water pressure in the hydrants. We need to look into water storage, water allotment, what the plans were for wildfires, what Newsom’s water policies did, what city water policies were, what the system was designed for, and so many more.

“And that is, of course, ignoring natural factors like wind and a lack of rain. We all want someone to blame right now. For L.A., the closest person to this has been Mayor Bass who sort of abandoned the city even though officials said she would have been needed. But the Governor has been largely blamed for the situation as well. So of course he is trying to find a way to deflect.

“That’s why we are on water pressure right now. Even though the LAFD and others have explained why it has been happening, Newsom is putting an investigation into it, making people look to LA County officials instead. We already know the whys in his letter, but he still wants an investigation.”