LOS ANGELES, CA- While liberals have blamed “climate change” for the devastating fires that are decimating Los Angeles, a bombshell report in RedState reveals that a key reservoir in the Palisades area was empty when the fire started.
Jennifer Van Laar, writing for RedState, reports that the Santa Ynez Reservoir, located in the hills above Pacific Palisades, was bone dry when the fires started last Tuesday. This reservoir, which feeds three water tanks with a one-million-gallon capacity, plays a crucial role in firefighting efforts during Southern California's brush fire season. However, it had been taken offline for repairs to its cover, a decision that would have significant consequences given the increasing fire risk.
That information contrasts claims made by DEI hire and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) head Janisse Quinones, who has claimed during press briefings that her department had done everything possible to prepare for the forecasted hurricane-force winds to support the Los Angeles Fire Department, RedState reported.
News of the reservoir’s lack of water came from the LAFD Watchdog Instagram account, which broke the story on Thursday. The post read:
The Santa Ynez Reservoir, which holds 117 million gallons of water and supplies three tanks in the Palisades area, was drained for maintenance during brush fire season. While the three tanks, each with a capacity of 1 million gallons, were full at the time of the fire, they were unable to meet the demand without the reservoir to refill them. This reckless decision to take the reservoir offline left firefighters without sufficient water and severely hindered their efforts. DWP CEO Janisse Quinones has failed to disclose this critical information and instead blamed “extreme demand” on the system. Her lack of transparency and leadership in this preventable failure demands her immediate resignation.
The Watchdog group’s allegations were confirmed by the Los Angeles Times, which confirmed with WADWP officials that the reservoir had indeed been drained for repairs. According to a former DWP general manager, Martin Adams, the water pressure would have been extended if the reservoir was online, although there would have still been “serious drops in pressure.”
“Would Santa Ynez [Reservoir] have helped? Yes, to some extent. Would it have saved the day? I don’t think so,” Adams said. He explained that if the reservoir had been online, it could have provided additional water for firefighting efforts, potentially reducing the severity of the fire and the number of homes destroyed.
While LADWP officials haven't said how long the reservoir has been offline, they did admit it had been emptied “for a while” due to the cover tear.
Quinones said the tanks could not be filled due to excessive demand and fire conditions, which prevented crews from rerouting water to refill one of them.
Quinones said that demand at lower elevations hampered the ability to pump water to the tanks located at higher elevations. In fact, DWP crews attempting to reroute water to refill a tank needed to be evacuated. She said four times the usual demand on the trunk line over 15 hours led to drops in water pressure.
Meanwhile, Adams said that had the reservoir been online during that time, demand may have been three times as high. He said that water in the reservoir would have helped feed fire pumpers and helped pump stations push water to the storage tanks, however, he said it “wouldn’t have lasted forever and would not have been a fix-all.”
“Eventually, you would have gotten to the same place,” Adams continued, noting that he was basing that assertion on rough estimates and he hadn’t calculated the specific impact.
In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, an LADWP spokesperson said the utility was “still evaluating the effect of the reservoir being placed offline and that staffers were conducting a root-cause analysis.”
“Our primary focus is to provide water supply throughout the city. The system was never designed for a wildfire scenario that we are experiencing.”
The question becomes, why? Wildfires in the Los Angeles hills are nothing new, and in the case of the Pacific Palisades, mountains and canyons pose a significant risk when wildfires break out.
One might think the utility could be run more competently, especially since Quinones makes a whopping $750,000 per year, $315,000 more than her predecessor, Adams.
When Quinones was hired, LA City Council President Paul Krekorian said:
“This council will be considering many important appointments that the mayor will be making, but very few will be as consequential as this one. Leadership of the DWP is absolutely vital to this city.”
When word of Quinones’ outlandish salary was criticized, LA City Council member Kevin de Leon said it was necessary to attract “top talent.”
“Her salary without question is (nearly) doubled from her predecessor, but she comes from the private sector. She comes from an investor-owned utility where she could easily command twice that amount.”
“Top talent?” With tens of thousands of acres reduced to a smoking pile of ash, thousands of homes destroyed, several people killed, and the landscape of Los Angeles changed forever, some may dispute the title of “top talent” to describe Quinones.
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