Quote:
Originally Posted by speeder
The water pressure issue has been sufficiently explained several times…it was a water volume issue. Not enough water anywhere to fight this using hydrants alone. Planes and helicopters could not fly.
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Denis, I need to jump in here as this is not accurate. But before I do, the final word on what operationally went wrong will need to be further sorted in the future.
I have a career's worth of experience in the design and operation of water systems, both retail and wholesale, think State Water Project contractor.
The questions that will need to be sorted and I do not have detailed knowledge of, is the storage standards, the age and size of the existing "local" in system transmission and the distribution system. Old developments to State Standards and NOT to modern standards such as those developed by the ISO (Insurance Services Office) AWWA (American Waterworks Association) and others. These standards, I am sure, have further changed since I retired in 2005. But again, this is something that needs to be seriously examined AND acted on; not ignored or covered up as in the past.
My most immediate concern has to do with the reported storage in the area. What I am hearing is that the entire fire area only had 3 MG of storage and had the 117 MG Santa Ynez Reservoir off line. I find it had to believe that there was only 3MGs available as with that size of service area, 3MG is not very much. That is where I think further investigation will clarify. A 117 MG reservoir that is off line, especially since the wet season has not started, is really disturbing.
Also, if the backbone system cannot readily transmit water from one part of the zone to the other, this will impact fire fighting supply at the critical point of demand.
The lack of adequate fire storage physically in each hydraulic zone (and this exists in older systems) is also a serious deficiency. Gravity is your friend and you can NEVER pump enough to meet fire flow requirements in a retail municipal distribution system in a fire flow demand situation.
My huge sadness of what has happened in the Palisades and Alta Dena does not completely eliminate my desire to find out what has caused these problems, the adequacy of the existing infrastructure and the operation of that infrastructure.
It is imperative to start the failure analysis now, and not let the potential deficiencies be once again overlooked/ignored and not corrected. This has been the case in the past.