California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that he has commissioned an independent investigation into the causes of the “deeply troubling” lack of water and lost water pressure that hampered firefighting efforts during the wildfires that have killed 10 so far and destroyed 10,000 structures in Los Angeles County.
Newsom sent a letter to Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) CEO Janisse Quinones and L.A. County Director of Public Works Mark Pastrella requesting them to document the causes of lost water pressure and the “unavailability” of water.
“The ongoing reports of the loss of water pressure to some local fire hydrants during the fires and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir are deeply troubling to me and the community,” Newsom wrote. “… losing supplies from fire hydrants likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors.”
Further, he requested Quinones and Pastrella to "fully and transparently" share information and records with the "state's after-incident review."
Newsom has been roundly criticized, most acutely from President-elect Donald Trump, for policies that led to ripe conditions for the wildfires to ravage Los Angeles County. Trump has called for Newsom to resign.
As the debate rages as to how and why there wasn’t enough water to battle the infernos, Newsom said, “We need answers to ensure this does not happen again and we have every resource available to fight these catastrophic fires.”
Trump previously warned Newsom about clearing out forest debris that becomes tinder for wildfires. Also, Newsom in 2020 filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the then-president's plan to deliver more water from Northern California to Central Valley farmers, saying Trump was failing to protect an endangered fish species.
"He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn't work!), but didn't care about the people of California," Trump said in a Truth Social post Wednesday.
In a virtual meeting earlier Friday, President Joe Biden told Newsom he’s “getting a bad rap” about fire hydrants with no water in them.
“Give me a break,” Biden said in the meeting, also attended by Vice President Kamala Harris and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who’s also under intense scrutiny for myriad reasons, budget cuts to the Los Angeles Fire Department chief among them.
“What this is all about is the utilities, understandably, what they did is they cut off power because they’re worried about these high-tension lines coming down and causing more fires, right? And when they do that, guess what? They shut off the power that controls the ability to pump the water,” Biden said, repeating a claim that has been refuted by power suppliers.
“LADWP water pumps and water flows were not affected by power outages,” a LADWP spokesperson told the New York Post, adding, “the tremendous demand for water in the Palisades, which was four times as much as our normal demand in the area, lowered the water pressure.”
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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