Water and the Eaton and Palisades fires

Opinion: Why no water system is built with capacity for fires like Palisades and Eaton.  Tom Majich.

In the immediate aftermath of the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires, local water agencies have been questioned and criticized about why sufficient water resources may not have been available for the fire suppression effort. As the general manager of a public water agency, I’ve tried to succinctly explain the quandary facing water systems, especially those whose infrastructure has evolved over the past 130 years from irrigating citrus orchards to serving highly populated and dense residential communities.

One metaphor has seemed to resonate. When I talk to people about the finite capacity of water systems, I ask them to imagine a small coffee shop that sells 200 to 300 cups of drip coffee on an average day and a few days a year might sell 400.

That is how community water systems are designed to operate. The random, but not system-shocking, 400-cup day is similar to what a water system may experience on a day with high customer demand in addition to a few isolated structure fires or a small wildland-urban interface fire that is primarily suppressed by air attack resources. Water systems are designed for this scenario, and they perform well.

Read on the Los Angeles Times

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