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2/10/2025
WT Staff
Got water questions? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email us at info@watertoday.ca
February 10, 2025 909 am PST
Public engagement with water issues is off the charts, LADWP responds
The wildfires have brought waves of public attention and engagement to water matters like no other disaster. Unprecedented numbers of water conversations going on across the continent encourage us to continue to pump the feedback loop with accurate, the timely and the complete information on all things water. WaterToday anticipates your participating to up-level the discourse, inspiring the forward thinking responses that come with reliable information.
Public access to provisional field data
US Geological Survey monitors and maintains the streamflow gauges in California rivers and streams. Members of the public can access water depth and volume details online. WaterToday regularly monitors current streamflow, flood and drought details transferring active flooding, extreme high flows and extreme low flows to our front page map. WTCAL.us inquired of the USGS Water Science Center in California for more, the front line on the receiving end of field monitoring stations will be back to us to answer your questions. Filling in with more water details, California reservoir levels are measured daily, the information is accessible to the public on line. Encouraged by your engagement and inquiries, we aim to source and relay the pertinent water information you need. Send us an email or give us a call with specific questions you don't see covered here, info@watertoday.ca.
Across the USA, municipal water systems treat raw surface water or groundwater to National Drinking Water regulation standards. New contaminants added to the Safe Drinking Water Act from time to time challenge licensed drinking water facilities to adapt with new filters and potentially new processes. Given less than 10% of the daily demand for potable water is for drinking and food preparation, it may be time for a conversation about separating the drinking water from the rest of municipal demand. To ensure safe drinking water through all manner of crisis is the goal. Join the conversation with verified data and facts, as thorough and complete, we will be pulling in subjects raised in online forums for further exploration here. More to follow.
Los Angeles Department of Water and Sewer has issued a response to a line of public questioning of the water supply and water pressure during the Palisades fires. Here is an excerpt from that response by two front line fire officers:
"Metropolitan water systems are not designed to sustain a fire fight like this.
Your viewers can't expect a municipal water system to supply enough
firefighting water to extinguish every one of these houses. That's
unrealistic."
– Chief Anthony Marrone, L.A. County Fire Department
"We did have water during this operation. We are limited. The fact is, is when
we fight a normal structure fire, we flow about a thousand gallons a minute,
fighting that normal structure fire and that’s a single structure fire with multiple
handlines and may be heavy streams that we use, that flow more water. If you
can imagine how many structures were burning, plus perimeter, we just
outpaced the amount of water that any major water can supply so we had to
use alternate tactics bringing water tenders. We ordered a whole bunch. DWP
did a great job bringing extra so we’re basically mobile hydrants to be able to
fight the fire."
– Chief Christian Litz, California Department of Forestry and
Fire Protection Operations
Safe Drinking Water Advisories
Los Angeles County: Altadena “Do Not Use” order has been updated to DO NOT DRINK-DO NOT BOIL YOUR WATER Following the Eaton Fire, the Lincoln Avenue Water Company service was depressurized. Follow-up testing for volatile organic chemicals (VOC) detected Benzene at sample sites located on E Manor St., Highview Ave., W Pine St., and E Pine St. Benzene results so far are as high as 22 parts per billion (ppb)
What is benzene?
According to the National Cancer Institute, "Benzene is a colorless or light-yellow liquid chemical at room temperature. It is used primarily as a solvent in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, as a starting material and an intermediate in the synthesis of numerous chemicals, and in gasoline. Benzene is produced by both natural and man-made processes. It is a natural component of crude oil, which is the main source of benzene produced today. Other natural sources include gas emissions from volcanoes and forest fires."
The primary route for exposure to benzene is via breathing air that contains the chemical. The air quality is monitored for Los Angeles South Coast basin and raw toxicity data has been made available to the public. More to follow.
See WTCAL.us Serious Violator List, here.
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