Why Was Pacific Palisades Reservoir Empty? It Gets Worse…

Authored by Victoria Taft via PJMedia.com,

An empty reservoir and dry fire hydrants are now the symbols of California and local officials’ response to the horrific Pacific Palisades wildfire—one of six Santa Ana windblown firestorms still burning in Los Angeles. Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered an investigation to demonstrate that he’s doing something, but the damage is being done right now. 

The 117 million-gallon Santa Ynez Reservoir was empty and down for maintenance when the devastating fire was sparked, perhaps in the brush, between the homes and the Pacific Coast Highway. You can see a map of the area in my story Good Intentions Might Be the Cause of Devastating Palisades Fire. 

Friday, officials confirmed that the reservoir had been down for nearly a year —closing in February 2024—for maintenance to the cover of the reservoir. 

The New York Times reports that a contractor was hired in November to fix a crack in the cover. It is unclear why the reservoir had to be shut down for that extended period of time. 

The ripple effect was beyond devastating. 

This empty reservoir wasn’t caused by Climate Change. It was caused by Democrats. pic.twitter.com/WrLFHYOsBh

— A Man Of Memes (@RickyDoggin) January 10, 2025

The fires broke out Tuesday, Jan. 7. By the next day, Janisse Quiñones, the head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said their system tanks went dry three times. You’ll want to remember that because the story is about to get worse. 

We have three large water tanks, about a million gallons each. We ran out of water in the first tank at about 4:45 p.m. yesterday. We ran out of water in the second tank about 8:30 p.m. and the third tank about 3 a.m. this morning.

She never mentioned the empty reservoir, though former DWP Commissioner and mayoral candidate Rick Caruso did say that “the reservoir” hadn’t been filled. He was right and righteously angry.  

Firefighters complained that there was no water coming out of the hydrants. The fires burned uncontrollably. 

In addition to the “investigation” by Newsom, the New York Times reported that the Department of Water and Power, whose job it is to fill the reservoirs, is looking into whether the empty Santa Ynez reservoir in Pacific Palisades made a difference in their fire response. We are not kidding. 

 See if you can spot a problem for the DWP in the Times’ piece.

Water for the Pacific Palisades is fed by a 36-inch line that flows by gravity from the larger Stone Canyon Reservoir, said Marty Adams, a former general manager and chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. That water line also fills the Santa Ynez Reservoir. 

Water from the two reservoirs then sustain the water system for the Pacific Palisades, and also pump systems that fill storage tanks that feed higher-elevation homes in the neighborhood. It was unclear whether officials could have brought the reservoir back online before the fire, after forecasters began warning of dangerous wildfire conditions.

Now, I’m no hydrologist or physicist, but wouldn’t water pressure be helped by having water in all the tanks and reservoirs? Am I missing something here? 

But, what ho! We get an answer.

Mr. Adams said an operational reservoir would have been helpful initially to more fully feed the water system in the area. But he also said it appeared that that reservoir and the tanks would have eventually been drained in a fire that was consuming so many homes at once. Municipal water systems are generally designed to sustain water loads for much smaller fires than what consumed Pacific Palisades. [emphasis added]

Those are a lot of words to say that more water would have been helpful. 

Speaking of not being a hydrologist, I looked up the latest state hydrology report because the global warming crowd desperately hopes to blame “climate change/catastrophe” for the fires. Yeah, well, that dog won’t hunt. 

If you’re new here, from east to west Southern California, there’s desert, then mountains, then semi-arid land all the way to the ocean. While the media will tell you this is climate change, this is no change at all. This is the state of play in California all the time. However, California has received a surge in water in the last few years following a drought, but there have been no new reservoirs built to store water since the last one opened in 1979.

According the latest hydrologist report, “Major flood control reservoirs are either near their respective top of conservation levels or below.” Precipitation has been slow in the first couple of weeks of the year, but the “The statewide accumulated precipitation to end of November 2024 was 5.22 inches, which is 132% of average.” The snowpack, which is also where water is stored, and Gavin Newsom lets flow out to the Pacific Ocean to “save” a bait fish, is growing. “The statewide average snow water equivalent (SWE) was 5.1 inches for December 1, which is 168% percent of normal and 19% of April 1 average.”

In other words, there’s been precipitation — remember all those atmospheric rivers? — and if there were more storage there would be more water available for drinking and fighting fires. 

I could go into the environmental rules that don’t allow much, if any, thinning in forests, road building, otherwise known as fire breaks, reservoir building, and preventative burning, which used to happen all the time to stop these conflagrations that the enviros like to blame on climate, but I do in my other stories. 

Here’s Newsom touting full reservoirs in Southern California — though the one that counted was empty.

Southern California’s water supplies are well-equipped to support local communities fighting the wildfires. Many of the state’s largest reservoirs are currently at or above their historic average storage levels for this time of year. pic.twitter.com/A7KZRJKBNA

— Governor Newsom (@CAgovernor) January 9, 2025

And here’s Newsom excitedly patting himself on the back because he removed dams (and reservoirs) to help tribal fish flows, but what about having enough water to drink and put out fires? 

CA Governor Gavin Newsom brags about “the largest dam removal in U.S. history” because you gotta save the fish.

Meanwhile, there’s not water to fight fires.

pic.twitter.com/CT5bcTYUOH

— PNW Conservative (@UnderWashington) January 9, 2025

In addition, California’s self-inflicted wounds continue as the state spends less money on necessities and more on the left’s luxury beliefs. If you’re paying some of your firefighters upwards of $700,000 then you can’t afford a lot of them, OK, L.A.? You’ll find the highest-paid public servants in L.A. here. 

California’s profligacy has also caused homeless people to flock to the state. More than 50% of the fire responses are to homeless camps as I point out in my story What Started L.A.’s Firestorm? Hint: It’s Not ‘Climate Change.’

Instead of kicking people out of their encampments so they don’t start fires, the response has been to look the other way and/or find someone shelter where druggies don’t want to go. 

Homeless campers setting a fire destroyed part of an I-10 Freeway overpass in 2023. A mile-long stretch of freeway was closed and Newsom declared a state of emergency for L.A. County. 

Voters have taxed themselves billions to “solve the homelessness problem.” But there’s virtually no accountability, as I wrote in this story headlined: No Wonder Gavin Newsom Didn’t Want an Audit to Track $24 Billion in Homeless Spending.

In 2014, voters also taxed themselves billions to build more reservoirs. Environmentalists don’t want those either. 

And the reservoir that counted this week was dry.