Residents argue that the watering restrictions could place their homes at risk. However, drought and wildfire experts say arguing for more water to maintain vegetation is not actually a longterm solution to fire problems
After losing dozens of oak trees, a guest house and a garage filled with mementos of her late husband in the 2018 Woolsey fire, Nicole Radoumis dreads the arrival of extreme fire weather amid a punishing California drought.
Based on similar concerns voiced by residents in affected areas, municipal water districts in Los Angeles and Ventura counties are now asking state water officials to allocate more water under the health and safety exception for drought rules, using the rationale that it should include the mitigation of wildfire risk.
“If you live in an urban area, let your garden die, it’s OK. But if you live in an area designated by the state as a very high fire hazard severity zone, that’s not an option anymore,” said John Zhao, director of facilities and operations for the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District. “That’s why it’s so important to recognize our unique need to keep the vegetation alive. … It’s part of the health and safety of living in this area.
“Metropolitan is working with local water agencies to understand the need for additional water supplies for wildfire safety and to communicate this need to the state Department of Water Resources,” read an MWD statement on the matter. “Agencies are in the process of determining the amount of additional water needed to maintain landscaping critical to fire suppression in the wildland-urban interface.
David Pedersen, general manager of the Las Virgenes water district, said wildfire protection should have been factored into each district’s health and safety needs, but wasn’t.Las Virgenes, DWP, Calleguas and Three Valleys Municipal are requesting more water. Swain, of UCLA, questioned the effectiveness of preemptively wetting areas of the wildland-urban interface, because climate change has heightened fire risk by increasing the propensity of the atmosphere to suck water out of the landscape. Under such conditions, a farmer can deeply irrigate a field in the morning and the soil will be cracked and dry by the afternoon, he said.
During the Las Virgenes town hall on May 11, there were dozens of questions and remarks. One woman said that she and her husband’s garden was “one of the only things protecting our home.” But she also uses a regular sprinkler system to water the lawn and said that, “if I’m not watering enough to keep the lawn alive, then all the other plants around will die as well.”
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