Inside the battle to restore drinking water in Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
The Rubio Cañon Land & Water Assn.’s tiny Altadena office building had turned into a command post by early morning Jan. 8. As firefighters scrambled to save homes and lives from the Eaton fire above ground, Rubio Cañon’s staff was fighting to keep its below-ground water system alive.
It was a losing battle.
The small utility, one of the three private customer-owned water providers in Altadena, watched as water hemorrhaged from its system — from residents running garden hoses to try to douse flames licking at their homes to water lines at the base of destroyed homes that melted or snapped in the heat. The water level in the labyrinth of underground pipes began to drop, creating a vacuum in the system. Open hydrants and broken connections higher in the hills began sucking in the toxic smoky air to fill the void left by the water depletion.
Today, most Altadena and Pacific Palisades residents still don’t have clean drinking water, with “do not drink” and “do not boil” notices still in effect. They pick up packages of bottled water from the stoop of the utilities’ offices, and while they’re technically allowed to use the tap water for showers, washing hands and laundry, many still don’t trust it.
