A plan to provide firefighters in Los Angeles and Orange counties almost limitless seawater to fight fires has been stalled for more than a decade, despite the ever-looming threat of mass fires fueled by quakes and high winds.
As fires across Los Angeles County start to wind down, health officials are warning about risks related to water systems in the area.
Southern California is in the midst of what the National Weather Service describes as a “remarkably dry rainy season,” with much of the region experiencing a record or near-record slow start.
Fires in and around Los Angeles continue to rage as gusting Santa Ana winds drive the flames through brush and into neighborhoods. Two major blazes, the Eaton Fire and the Palisades Fire, have combined burned almost 40,000 acres since last week. Another fire, the Auto Fire, erupted Monday evening in Ventura County. The fires have killed at least 24 people.
A billionaire couple was accused of withholding water that could help stop Los Angeles’ massive wildfires. Democratic leadership was blamed for fire hydrants running dry and for an empty reservoir. Firefighters were criticized for allegedly using “women’s handbags” to fight the fires.
As massive fires continue to sweep through Los Angeles, firefighters are relying on local water infrastructure not designed for fires of this size, researchers say. Fires in California have grown more explosive because of climate change, which is largely driven by humans burning oil, gas and coal.
An engineer explained to NBC 7’s Alexis Rivas how the placement of homes — like those in the Pacific Palisades — can impact water pressure in hydrants. However, he said there is no fire hydrant system in the nation designed for what happened last week.
Silicon Valley’s largest water agency will vote Tuesday on whether to support Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to spend $20 billion to build a massive, 45-mile long tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to make it easier to move water from Northern California to Southern California.
As the latest round of Santa Ana winds hits the region and more Red Flag Warnings were put in place for thousands of residents, most of San Diego County and Southern California have slipped back into drought conditions.
The start to 2025 has been historic for Southern California, with wildfires causing widespread devastation throughout Los Angeles and no measurable rainfall in recent months causing the driest start to the water year in San Diego’s recorded weather history.
The U.S. EPA has released its 2024 Investing in America report, detailing the investment progress under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – two landmark pieces of legislation reshaping the future of the U.S. economy. Together, the BIL and the IRA provide the EPA $102 billion, including $41 billion under the IRA (FY 2022) and $61 billion under the BIL over five fiscal years (FY 2022 to FY 2026). To date, the resources appropriated to the EPA under the BIL amount to $36.9 billion.
Nearly half of the total appropriation – $50 billion – targets water, one of the EPA’s five major programs (the other four being climate action, air, land, and protecting our communities), marking the largest federal investment in water systems in U.S. history. This funding aims to modernize the nation’s drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure while preserving critical waterways.
