Biden claim about empty hydrants undermined by LA water utility's lack of common wildfire safety protocol
Los Angeles' municipal utility lacks a common safety procedure that may have kept water pumping to fire hydrants during an intentional power shutoff, though President Biden said the outage caused the problem.
Republicans, including President-elect Trump, have blamed Democratic officials — at least in part — for the water shortage, which has hampered efforts to fight devastating wildfires in Los Angeles County. However, Democrats have rebuked these claims, and on Thursday, Biden suggested the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) bore responsibility for shutting off power to pumps that fuel the hydrants.
"What I know from talking to the governor, there are concerns out there that there’s also been a water shortage," Biden told reporters. "The fact is the utilities, understandably, shut off power because they are worried the lines that carried energy were going to be blown down and spark additional fires. When it did that, it cut off the ability to generate pumping the water — that’s what caused the lack of water in these hydrants."
Biden noted that generators were being deployed following the shutdown to get power back to the pumps and ensure there is no longer a shortage of water to fight the fire.
But a report from The Wall Street Journal unveiled Friday highlighted how LADWP is the only major utility company in California without an intentional shut-off protocol, known as a "Public Safety Power Shut Off" procedure. The protocol lays out plans for how to proactively shut down certain electricity lines during dangerous windstorms and limit the impact to public safety.
"Being prepared for a power shutoff takes careful planning, which begins by designing our water systems the right way and working with local fire agencies and energy companies to ensure community safety," California Water Service, a private utility provider in the state, explains on its website FAQ page about public safety power shutoffs.
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"We go to great lengths beyond our standard procedures to ensure water service isn’t disrupted during a power shutoff," the company added. "Cal Water has been installing permanent generators at a number 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 for when these widespread shutoffs occur."
Michael Wara, a lawyer who directs the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University and studies wildfire mitigation strategies, added in remarks to the Journal that "there is no need to make any trade-off between reliability and safety."
Edward Ring, the director of water and energy policy for the California Policy Center, confirmed there are measures that could be taken to keep power to the pumps during an intentional shutoff.
"They need to underground these power lines, that would be the solution, or they need to have parallel systems that go to vital services like fire hydrant pumps that are not on the same circuit as the lines that are going into households," he said.
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A spokesperson for LADWP told Fox News Digital that in the absence of a public safety power shutoff protocol for Los Angeles, it has a different procedure in place to reduce fire risks while continuing vital functions. The spokesperson said that Los Angeles's urban environment is different from the environments that other California utility companies serve.
"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 is submitted to state regulators as required."
But, in the past, according to the Journal, LADWP has asserted it will not proactively shut off power ahead of heavy winds.
Former Los Angeles firefighter John Knox, who spoke with Fox News on Friday, said he was "surprised" to hear that fire hydrants were running dry, adding that there are "a lot of things that need to be asked by the people to get answers from these so-called leaders."
"In my career I've never seen us have — every once in a while you might have a dry hydrant, but we do annual testing in January where we test all the fire hydrants and that didn't happen this year," Knox said. "That area has a very large reservoir with four huge tanks that are supposed to be filled at all times. It's my understanding also that they had one of them that's been out for maintenance for a year during peak brush season.
"There's a lot of issues and a lot of things that need to be asked by the people to get answers from these so-called leaders."