Recently the Water Blog invited Valerie Howard, Public Information Officer from Central Basin Muncipal Water District in California, to share a perspective on water utility work to support firefighting in the region.
With our national forests re-opening and blue skies returning, Southern Californians are beginning to exhale, assess the damage of 11 fires, and look at some of the lessons learned.
For the water utilities, the devastating fires were a harsh reminder of how the state’s most populated region depends on a very interconnected and fragile water system.
In the two weeks of fires, MWD reported a 3 billion gallon spike in water demand, most likely caused by the combination of dry, windy weather and regional firefighting efforts.
Although MWD has more than 2 million acre-feet of water in reserves, this unexpected withdrawal of resources could be a more serious issue for us if the state’s drought conditions continue into 2008. Only time will tell.
Fortunately for Central Basin , which represents a 227 square-mile region in Southeast LA County, there were no direct impacts from the fires. Several of our utilities, however, had closer encounters.
The Golden State Water Co., for instance, is one of our larger utilities with offices in the City of Anaheim , just miles from the Santiago Fire. When the fires struck, they had crews out all night, monitoring Orange County connections, watching reservoir supplies and applying preventative maintenance. Fortunately for them, and the 1.2 million customers they serve, their supplies were not disrupted.
Central Basin applauds the hard work of our customers and member agencies to protect the water supplies. For us, the fires reaffirmed the critical importance of having an emergency response plan in place. In addition to being a part of MWD’s emergency response system, we actively support our cities in developing similar programs, through workshops and other resources.
Valerie Howard
Public Information Officer
Photo of Santiago Fire provided courtesy of Municipal Water District of Orange County.
Great facts, I was wondering what the impacts of the fires were on our local water resources. Bad timing for the fires with a dry year and reduced supplies of imported water. It is nice to see that someone is shedding light on this issue. Our water supplies are short and we all need to do our part to conserve.