Posted on 01/23/2025 12:18:00 AM PST by grundle
Former and current DWP officials acknowledge that if the reservoir had held water, higher-elevation areas of the Palisades would have had more water pressure, but it’s unclear for how long.
The saga traces back to January 2024, when a DWP property manager spotted a tear in the reservoir's floating cover after a series of rainstorms
The cover is meant to prevent animals and debris from contaminating the water and to limit algae and bacteria.
When a property manager saw the tear again two days later, it seemed to have grown larger, according to the emails.
DWP policy calls for minor repairs to the cover to be addressed "within 48 hours of discovery," according to a maintenance manual for the reservoir. Major repairs, however, require "specialized skills" and are contracted out, the manual indicates.
It's unclear how the DWP initially assessed the tear, but in either case, the manual reflects urgency: "Make repairs ASAP as directed by the engineer."
By late January, the DWP was developing a plan for repairs and had a target date for bringing the reservoir back, by April 2024
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
There would have been water at the most critical time.
It still makes no sense. They could have closed the valves to prevent that water from reaching the drinking supply, but still kept the “grey water” for fire emergencies. We knew it was going to be dry this year. We knew the Santa Ana winds were coming. That particular reservoir was critical for fire because it was up in the hills and thus created plenty of water pressure to the hydrants. We have horrible governance. Speaking to the choir here on FR but nobody ever vote for Gavin Newsom for anything ever. Every part of the state has declined under his watch whether as mayor or in the governors office or in between when he was Lt gov. Homelessness doubled. Budget went from a $30 billion surplus to $70 billion deficit. Drug use and deaths massively increased which sadly also directly leads to more fires. Fire management, prevention and proactivity has declined. Governor has the power to declare emergencies he could have ordered the national guard and the county fire departments to mobilize and be at the ready, to fill the reservoirs and to move fire assets to high risk locations. He can blame ‘local folks’ all he wants, the buck stops with him. He could shut down gyms and restaurants during COVID-19, he sure as hell could have ordered mobilization during fire season.
dont live there
When it was built it was managed by reasonable people. Some of them were even reasonable democrats. It’s been forced into a state of decline over the decades with self interest and priority shifts. Of course blame the voters they’ve been blithe voting to feel good instead of for competent civic management. When the basic services of fire and safety are sacrificed on the altar of equity and diversity and Gaia, this is the result. I’ve never understood why some of these people don’t recognize that Humans are part of the ecology and we are a superior species. We’re not gods, but we can harness and control resources. Why would we deprecate our own abilities and environments?
But yes, now people can’t live there. It’s sad. Nobody I know who lives there voted for it but perhaps we all should have fought more to stop the decline. They were shamed into being quiet when they should have been shaming the people who pushed non issues over critical issues. And now dozens dead and hundreds of billions gone up in smoke and maybe it’s unlivable for a decade. Or maybe ever, if some of these people have their way.
bttt
DEI is dangerous for children and other living things.
Leftists destroy everything they touch.
The “green” movement has always been anti-human.
Remember this 2014 story?
Why Portland Reservoir Was Flushed After Teen Peed in It
Officials in Portland, Ore., are flushing 38 million gallons of public drinking water after a 19-year-old was caught on camera urinating into an open reservoir on Wednesday
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna54982644
“The water, which had already been treated, was tested for contamination after the incident. As expected, the sample came back clean, Jaymee Cuti, a spokeswoman for the Portland Water Bureau, told Live Science.
Officials acknowledged there was little public health risk from a small amount of urine in an open reservoir that is presumably exposed to the droppings of wild animals all the time. So why dump the whole supply? Bureau officials say they won’t stand for serving their customers “purposely tainted drinking water.”
How much of the overall system would have been contaminated by the grey water entering the system at the time of the fire?
Properly engineered, sections of the system could be isolated, but, being gov’t types, maybe no one planned for that...
Also, flexible coverings like these can be expected to fail - there should have been bidding done at the time of the original installation to cover future repairs, with some sort of allowance for inflation; review every year and re-bid for the future if necessary.
There are a variety of tanks for large amounts of water storage. One example:
There are several thousands of swimming pools in the Los Angeles area. Install at “T” at the drain and run a pipe to a “dry hydrant” that is close to the edge of the road, so the FD can reach it easily.
Use coal mining drilling machines, to drill into some of the mountain areas, and thereby create sub-terrean sheltered water storage.
No dim-0 could find a way to profit from filling it, probably.
Note to LA and CA...
If you think this was horrific, imagine what would happen if The Big One hits with Deep State in charge.
Let that scare you excrement-less for a moment...
Then secure your elections before it’s too late.
Where’s their Hell’s Kitchen now? Bass is toast in the hot seat while Newsom is also cooked. One recent restaurant review says that “The food is terrible and they don’t give you enough of it”.
Could all the disasters in CA be by design rather than incompetence? You would think that if it was pure incompetence, they would get something right just by chance.
so a tear on a cover that doesn’t affect the loss of water caused them to drain it before the Santa Ana wind event comes every year and the threat of fires are real. Sounds like eco nazis and DEI at work here. Catastrophic failure. Heard there are entities within the state that will be called upon to work with the federal government bypassing these inept, corrupt politicians and their friends from receiving and squandering federal aide, which they will do
Bureau officials stand only for normally tainted drinking water.
/s
It looks like the Los Angeles Times is serious about the new directive the owner issued regarding leftist drivle and is actuall y reporting pretty straight Real News stories. I applaud them.
The teen’s urine would have been infinitesimally small compared to the quantity of water in the reservoir, so to flush the whole reservoir was idiotic. I can recall a Prime Minister in India (didn’t serve very long) who drank his own urine because it had health benefits.
The “green” movement has always been anti-human
They’re a danger to the environment as well. Green, my @$$
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