Abstract:

Since the Los Angeles Fires of January 2025, dramatic shifts have occurred in perceptions, expectations, and understanding of water systems’ role in fighting wildfires in California. As a consequence, policy attention has increased regarding the potential for enhanced statewide oversight to enhance wildfire-fighting capacity across community water systems. No state in the U.S. has previously pursued this path. Water systems face many obstacles to fighting wildfires that they have not been expected or supported to overcome. At the same time, as wildfires become more urban and increasingly encroach into the service territories of community water systems, the concept introduces interesting questions and potential innovations in design and implementation that may be good investments as part of long-term climate change adaptation.

This leads to our overarching question in this discussion paper: What is the function, if any, for statewide oversight (in the form of data collection, guidance, frameworks, and standards) of community water systems’ role in fighting wildfires? In this paper, we describe the pros and cons of pursuing any oversight option, outline eight potential pathways for statewide oversight along a spectrum with respect to the status quo, and discuss the value of each approach. Options range from commissioning studies that gather information from systems, to voluntary guidance or system preparedness checklists, to legislating mandatory preparedness or performance standards. We outline how these options might work as well as the advantages and drawbacks of each approach.

Our only firm recommendation is to carefully weigh the tradeoffs of pursuing any state oversight approach. Only evidence-based, financially supported, and legally prudent guidance may ultimately prove effective to further combat wildfires in the state.