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The Los Angeles municipal utility does not have a common safety procedure that could have kept water pumping to hydrants during an intentional power outage, even though President Biden said the outage caused the problem.
republicans, including President-elect Trumphave blamed Democratic officials, at least in part, for the water shortage, which has hampered efforts to fight the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles County. However, Democrats have rejected those claims and on Thursday, Biden suggested that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) was responsible for turning off the power to the pumps that feed the hydrants.
“What I know from talking to the governor, there are concerns that there are water shortages as well,” Biden told reporters. “The fact is that utilities, understandably, cut power because they’re concerned that the lines carrying the power would break and start additional fires. When it did that, it cut off the ability to generate water pumping, that is what caused the lack of water in these hydrants.”
Biden noted that generators were being deployed after the shutdown to restore power to the pumps and ensure there is no longer a shortage of water to fight the fire.
Firefighters reel in a hose used to fight the Eaton fire after a hydrant ran out of water as high winds fueling devastating fires in the Los Angeles area forced people to evacuate Thursday in Altadena, California. (Reuters/Fred Greaves)
But a report of The Wall Street Journal presented Friday, highlighted how LADWP is the only major utility in California without an intentional shutdown protocol, known as a “public safety shutdown” procedure. The protocol lays out plans for how to proactively shut down certain power lines during dangerous wind storms and limit the impact to public safety
“Being prepared for a power outage requires careful planning, which starts with designing our water systems the right way and working with local fire agencies and power companies to ensure community safety,” explains California Water Service, a private state-owned utility provider. their Public Safety Power Outages FAQ webpage.
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“We go far beyond our standard procedures to ensure that water service is not interrupted during a power outage,” the company added. “Cal Water has been installing permanent generators at several of our critical stations over the years, and we are working to bring in additional portable generators for other stations. Our crews and employees have also been trained on emergency response procedures ’emergency for when these are extended closures occur.’
Michael Wara, a lawyer who directs Stanford University’s Energy and Climate Policy Program and studies wildfire mitigation strategies, added in statements to the Journal that “there is no need to make a trade-off between reliability and safety.”
Firefighters battle the Kenneth Fire in the West Hills section of Los Angeles on Thursday. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Edward Ring, the director of water and energy policy at the California Policy Center, confirmed that there are steps that could be taken to keep power at the pumps during an intentional shutdown.
“They have to bury those power lines, that would be the solution, or they have to have parallel systems that go to vital services like fire pumps that are not on the same circuit as the lines that go into the homes,” he said . .
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An LADWP spokesperson told Fox News Digital that in the absence of a public safety power outage protocol for Los Angeles, it has a different procedure to reduce fire risks while continuing vital functions. The spokesman said the Los Angeles urban environment is different from the environments served by other California utilities.
“LADWP worked closely with the Los Angeles Fire Department to develop this emergency protocol,” the spokesperson said. “LADWP’s plan is audited every 3 years by an independent third party and submitted to state regulators as needed.”
But in the past, according to the Journal, LADWP has said it won’t proactively shut off power before high winds.
A firefighter pulls a hose from a hydrant that ran out of water while battling the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, on Thursday. (Reuters/Fred Greaves)
Former Los Angeles firefighter John Knox, who spoke to Fox News on Friday, said he was “surprised” to hear that the fire hydrants were being wiped out, adding that there is “a lot that needs to be asked of the people to get answers from these so-called leaders “.
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“In my career I’ve never seen us, every once in a while you can have a dry hydrant, but we do annual testing in January where we test all the hydrants and that didn’t happen this year,” Knox said. . “This area has a very large reservoir with four huge reservoirs that are supposed to be filled at all times. I also understand that they had one that was under maintenance for a year during the peak spring season.
“There are a lot of issues and a lot of things that people need to ask for answers from these so-called leaders.”
