Water now safe to drink in all areas after the fires of Los Angeles, says the state

Tap water is now sure to drink in areas served by nine water systems where damage caused by Altadena and Pacific Palisades fire storms caused “not drinking”, state regulators said on Friday.

The last water service with such an opinion, the Las Flores Water Co. in Altadena, was authorized to resume delivery of drinking water and raised its opinion “Do not drink” and “do not boil” Friday, four months after the publication of the opinion.

Las Flores has recommended to customers only when they use the use of water, they take various measures to empty the household system, including the management of all taps for at least five minutes before using it.

Officials of the state of the water resources control board said they had been Work with public services To help assess the damage, test potential contamination and make sure that it is sure to resume the water service.

“The restoration of the drinking water service is one of the most vital stages of any resumption after disaster,” said the chairman of the water board of directors E. Joaquin Esquivel. “The lifting of all opinions in drinking water marks an important step in recovery after fire.”

During and after the fires, the state required that local public services emit orders “do not drink” and “do not boil” and start testing contaminants after fire.

According to state estimates, around 23,000 water customers were affected by opinions in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

A contaminant of a particular concern was benzene, a carcinogen found in the plastic and treated construction wood as well as the forest smoke – which can enter the water systems when they lose pressure during a fire. Residents can be exposed by drinking contaminated water or inhaling benzene that enters the air when tap water is heated or boiled.

To restore safety water, public services first restore pressure from their system by often closing the thousands of connections left after the fire. Then they go through a water rinse cycle to rid of persistent contaminants and tests to check if contamination remains. This process is repeated until the system is deemed clean.

The Los Angeles department of water and energy has restored drinking water Integrality of the Pacific palisades on March 7.

Two of the three main aquatic utilities belonging to Altadena customers have followed suit Shortly after: Rubio Cañon Land and Water Association on March 11 and Lincoln avenue Water Company on March 13.

Several other public services have not detected any contaminants in their systems and quickly raised the orders “not to drink”.

Las Flores Water Co. restored the service to certain customers by mid-February. However, further in the foothills, the infrastructure of Las Flores has undergone significant damage, leaving the company incapable of providing water to large parts of its service area – not to mention that the water was safe.

On March 26, Las Flores and Lincoln Avenue completed a connection between the two public services, allowing the water supply of the avenues of Lincoln to flow into the Las Flores service area. This allowed Las Flores to start the testing and rinsing cycle, which resulted in the determination that water was safe to drink.

The restoration of the service reflects the differences between the public water services but also the considerable effort that everyone has undertaken, said Gregory Pierce, director of the UCLA water resources group.

“It really depends on the system, but there is a lot of work to do to rebuild systems, especially for some of the smaller and medium -sized systems,” said Pierce. This is complicated, he said, by limited federal funding compared to past fires, as well as by pressures on the state budget and the lack of inbound local income for water systems.

Yana Garcia, California environmental secretary, said that after fires were “laser focused on communities to recover and rebuild”.

“This includes bringing back online critical water infrastructure,” said Garcia.