Smaller water districts were hit hardest by L.A. firestorms, UCLA report finds

The January firestorms that swept through Altadena and Pacific Palisades destroyed not only thousands of homes but also portions of the water and sewer systems that served them.

Smaller water systems were hit the hardest, according to a study by UCLA researchers released Thursday. In Altadena, for example, the burned areas covered 79% of Rubio Cañon Land & Water Assn.’s service area and 88% of Las Flores Water Co.’s territory.

By comparison, less than 5% of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s service area suffered damage. The DWP serves about 4 million people; Las Flores supplies fewer than 5,000.

“These fires tested the physical and financial limits of our water infrastructure,” said Gregory Pierce, co-director of UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation. “We need to think not just about fixing pipes, but about redesigning systems and supporting populations that are more integrated, more equitable, and resilient to the next crisis.”

Pali High School rests across the street from homes destroyed in the Palisades fire in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 8.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Researchers at the Luskin Center for Innovation analyzed how the fires affected water systems together with researchers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the consulting firm Stantec. They examined the effects the Palisades and Eaton fires had on 11 community water systems, two sewer systems, and thousands of private wells and septic systems in L.A. County.

There are about 200 community water systems in L.A. County, and a large share of them serve fewer than 1,000 customers.

“Small, but sometimes medium-sized systems generally have financial capacity challenges,” Pierce said. “And those are compounded when they’re having to rebuild a substantial part of their system and aren’t getting revenue in the meantime.”

He noted that three of the smaller systems — Las Flores, Rubio Cañon and Lincoln Avenue Water Co. — have recently banded together in their announcements about post-fire efforts.

“Recovery is ongoing, and the fires have sparked critical conversations about drinking water and wastewater system resiliency,” the researchers wrote in the report. “Sustained local, state, and federal support is essential to ensure future systems are adaptable and financially sustainable.”

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The researchers also assessed the demographics of the communities that were affected.

The areas where water systems were damaged predominantly have higher incomes than the L.A. County average, with a higher percentage of home owners and a lower percentage of renters than the county average. Most of the systems serve largely white populations, but several water systems affected by the Eaton fire serve areas with significantly larger proportions of Black residents than the county average of 8%, including Las Flores (37%), Lincoln Avenue (30%), and Rubio Cañon (11%).

The report notes that smaller water suppliers such as Las Flores and Lincoln Avenue have limited access to funds to help rebuild their systems.

“While federal and state funds may fill some emergency and recovery gaps, local and regional systems will likely remain partly — if not entirely — financially self-dependent to pay for repairs,” the researchers said in the report. “Meanwhile, some of these same systems are recovering much less revenue than typical, given the dislocation of their customer base.”

The affected systems already had fairly high water rates before the fires based on their costs of providing service, Pierce said.

“The only direction for those rates to go in the future is up with the rebuild,” Pierce said. “So I’m not quite sure what we’re going to be saying about affordability standards for water in these areas, or whether we’re just simply going to have to accept the rates are going to be significantly higher, and that’s the cost of service.”