Water safety after fires

Although it has been a difficult process, California’s fire recovery over time has provided lessons, and those lessons are now being implemented in the burned areas of Los Angeles County to ensure the public consumes clean, purified water.

Therefore, experts are inspecting the equipment damaged by the Eaton Fire in Altadena so the water company hopes the system will be back online soon.

Several years ago, fires damaged the water system, and currently, due to the wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena, Los Angeles County is on alert to ensure residents are safe from drinking or using contaminated water.

Because this had happened in previous years, experts shared information when the Eaton and Palisades fires broke out. As a result, the state was able to provide affected utilities with a manual on how to restore safe drinking water to their customers.

The lessons learned helped the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which serves Pacific Palisades, restore drinking water to all its customers just two months after the fires broke out, compared to a full year in the Santa Rosa fires a few years ago.

It has been reported that Altadena utilities are still struggling to restore drinking water supplies. Many substances still need to be tested for.

Therefore, we must always be alert to what authorities report.

For example, in recent statements, Edith de Guzmán, a researcher on water equity and climate adaptation policy at UCLA, commented that “we are in a kind of new world as we enter this reality of increasingly numerous urban wildfires,” acknowledging that “we have impacts that we don’t even know how to measure or monitor.”

One chemical found in the fire a few years ago was benzene, although it was not the only contaminant present in the water in Los Angeles County after the fire.

As you may recall, after the smoke settled in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, local water utilities quickly issued orders for people not to drink but also not to boil their water, following the advice of the State Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Drinking Water.

It’s important to pay attention to these orders because they are designed to limit dangerous exposure to benzene, which is present in plastic and treated lumber, as well as in wildfire smoke. Over time, drinking or inhaling it can increase the risk of developing leukemia and other blood cancers.

The Water Resources Control Board has noted that while boiling water can eliminate pathogens, typical suspects in non-fire-related contamination, this process doesn’t work with benzene. Even though benzene has a lower boiling point than water, it can easily enter the air when heated.

However, scientists caution that these recommendations are not yet based on comprehensive scientific evidence. Numerous studies link prolonged exposure to small amounts of the contaminant with cancer risk. Few studies explore the potential for brief, intense exposures in the home.

California state figures indicate that while the maximum allowable level of benzene in drinking water is 1 part per billion, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OSHA) indicates that the concentration should be as low as 0.15 ppb to ensure no long-term, chronic effects. In the short term, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers exposure to more than 200 ppb for more than a day to be dangerous.

Following recent fires, Los Angeles County utilities have detected levels as high as 190 ppb in Altadena and 71.3 ppb in Palisades.

During previous fires, some experts argued that benzene testing alone was sufficient, saying that the chemical, which has repeatedly exceeded safe levels more frequently in post-fire systems, acts as a good “indicator” of whether other chemicals may be present.

Scientists indicate that it is not the only substance, and utilities should test not only for benzene but also for other contaminants.

In 2023, the California State Legislature codified post-fire benzene testing into law. While only benzene testing is required, the state Division of Drinking Water recommends that utilities test for the full range of benzene.