The Empty Reservoir

The current news about the Los Angrles fires carries a remarkable echo of the great LA noir film Chinatown (1974). The MacGuffin of that film involves the suspicion of Hollis Mulwray, the Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles Departmnent of Water and Power, that huge quantities of water are being diverted from a city reservoir every night despite a drought. Mulwray is murdered as he tries to investigate, which leaves private detective Jake Gittes to unravel the mystery.

Much of this year's story involves Janisse Quiñones, the Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and why a city reservoir intended to store water for the Pacific Palisades area was empty and unable to provide water to fight fires in that part of the city, which resulted in local hydrants going dry at a critical time.

On Mayor Karen Bass's orders, the city maxed out its budget to 'attract private-sector talent', hiring Department of Water and Power (LADWP) CEO Janisse Quiñones on a $750,000 salary in May – almost double that of her predecessor.

Now, Quiñones is being blamed by LA Fire Department (LAFD) insiders for leaving a nearby reservoir disconnected and fire hydrants broken for months, DailyMail.com can reveal, leading to firefighters running out of water as they battled the devastating Palisades Fire this week.

. . .The Santa Ynez Reservoir is designed to hold 117 million gallons of drinking water. But it was taken offline in recent months to repair a tear in its cover that exposed the water and potentially impacted its drinkability.

. . . Former DWP general manager Martin Adams told the paper that having the Santa Ynez reservoir would have helped fight the Palisades Fire that wiped out most of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood this week.

'Would Santa Ynez have helped? Yes, to some extent. Would it have saved the day? I don't think so,' Adams said.

He said the crucial reservoir had been offline 'for a while' before the fires, but didn't know the precise date.

But a source in the LA Fire Department (LAFD) told DailyMail.com that DWP officials told them 'had it not been closed they probably would have been ok and had enough water for the fire.'

It's hard to think Martin Adams isn't being intentionally vague about the whole issue. The reservoir had been "closed for a while" indeed:

This reservoir would have saved the Pacific Palisades. https://t.co/IklSey11YW

— Jacob Shell (@JacobAShell) January 11, 2025

In other words, it was closed on his own watch, too. Prior to his 2023 retirement, he had been with DWP for 39 years, rising to the position of Chief Engineer and General Manager in 2019. If the Santa Ynez reservoir had been empty since 2009, he must certainly have known about it and been in a position to do something about it as well.

So what's the story? DWP documentation says the reservoir was taken out of service on July 23, 2009 as a result of requirements by the US Environmental Protection Agency to implement a number of improvements, but especially to cover the reservoir. The report says, among other things, that the reservoir was drained twice to accomplish this, first from October 1, 2009 to May 1, 2010, and then from October 1, 2010 to May 1, 2011, with a floating cover finally installed in January 2011. The project was supposedly complete on December 19, 2012. However, the X thread raises the question of whether the reservoir cover was ever effective, with images showing periodic draining and repair, but it's definitely been empty since 2022:

I read a story yesterday about the damaged cover from a while back, and the picture that accompanied it was a coverless, empty reservoir dated September 9, 2022

— GlobalTrvlr (@GlobalTrlr) January 11, 2025

Former DWP Chief Engineer Adams minimized the potential role the Santa Ynez reservoir may have had in fighting the fires, but even he acknowledged that it would have helped:

"It could have made some difference in supporting the pressure loss early on, but it would not have lasted the whole fire," Martin Adams, who recently retired after 40 years of working at LADWP, most recently as General Manager, told ABC News.

"It might have helped for a little bit, but it wouldn't have been the be-all end-all," Adams said.

As it waas, the Palisades fire crews could rely only on three tanks holding 1 million gallons each, which were quickly exhausted. Another 117 million gallons from the reservoir would definitely have helped -- this would be more than 30 times the amount the crews had available. The reservoir was emptied most recently on Adams's watch and never repaired. Sounds like he has some 'splaining to do, whatever Janisse Quiñones may have to say.