CVWD hosts a preview of what a dry day would be like.

By Mary O’KEEFE

On Saturday, Sept. 28 Crescenta Valley Water District (CVWD) asked community members to imagine a day without water.

“Imagine a day without water,” said James Lee, CVWD general manager. “We’re not talking about a whole future ­– just a day. How do you feel?”

He asked the people in the audience at the Judy Tejeda Reservoir Site what they would do if they wanted to do their laundry or wash the dishes. He asked them to imagine not having the water that is currently so easily available every day.

“[CVWD] provides the water and we take the wastewater away,” he said.

The morning event included several emergency responders including those from a variety of fire departments including Los Angeles County, Glendale and Burbank. Lee spoke about how important it is to have water available every day. He also highlighted the importance of community connections as well as having connections with elected officials. All of these entities are needed to keep water flowing.

The event on Saturday was a chance for community members, elected officials from offices like Crescenta Valley Town Council and State Senator Anthony Portantino and fire departments to talk to each other and highlight the importance of water.

“Our primary partner in this operationally is Los Angeles County Fire Department,” Lee said.

He paraphrased the department’s mission statement of “the protection of life and property, and promoting culture and economic development.” He added that CVWD’s mission statement is similar.

In addition to imagining a day without water, CVWD wanted to present a few things it is doing for the community. One of those things is having “dip tanks” brought to local areas during fires that water-dropping fire department helicopters could access.

“You remember the Station Fire in 2009?” Lee asked the audience.

Water-dropping helicopters played an important role in fighting that 2009 wildfire and having dip tanks available, which each hold 4,000 gallons of water, could be of help in the future. CVWD has two new dip tanks that will soon be placed – one near Scholl Canyon Sports Complex and the other in Deukmejian Wilderness Park.

Assistant LA County Fire Chief for Division 3 Patrick Sprengel stepped on stage at the event and thanked Glendale and Burbank fire department representatives for attending.

“I’ve been asked to speak this morning about fire operations as it relates to water resources, water sources, water availability and the fire departments’ relationship with the water departments, specifically with Crescenta Valley Water District,” Sprengel said.

He thanked Lee and CVWD for their proactive approach and their collaboration in this area.

“The recent procurement of two water tanks, or ‘marks’ as we call them, mobile aircraft load containers [dip tanks] … will be a huge asset and advantage in our ability to protect the community of Crescenta Valley and the surrounding communities in case of wildfire,” he said. “These are truly a game changer for us in the fire service. Going into this time of year, my main focus and concern from a fire protection perspective is the threat of wildfire.”

He added the fire agency has the “top of the line” equipment but the one variable that is difficult to control in some areas of the district is water availability.

“Sometimes the water is the toughest part. We’re only as good as the water we have,” he said. “For aircraft support we will typically take advantage of available lakes, ponds or aqueducts.”

He added that currently the closest water for this community for fire aircraft is to the west at Angeles National Golf Course and to the east at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The new portable tanks can move to other areas when needed to increase effectiveness in fire fighting.

Lee said providing these tanks came from discussions the district had with its partners like LACoFD.

Another community partner who spoke at the event was Paul Dutton, representing the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

“CERT teaches you that you always need to be prepared ahead of time. We all think, ‘It won’t happen here,’ but we’re in the land of La Crescenta. We have had hurricane force winds, we are home of the Station Fire, we have had power outages, Red Flag Warnings, debris flows and floods,” Dutton said. “If you don’t plan ahead of time you’re going to be stuck in a cold dark house.”

He stressed the community needs to be ready for the next disaster.

Another member that has a community partnership with CVWD is the youth of the community. Recently the district reached out to middle and high school students inviting them to write an essay imagining “Life Without Water.” The winning essay was written by Nicolas Dermardirosian, a senior at CV High School. The essay, which was printed in CVW last week in the Youth section, is a nod to the “Twilight Zone” style of futurist science fiction writing. It speaks about what life would be like without water. The story’s main character attempts to save the last orange tree as the world dries up.

Dermardirosian said his inspiration came from his mother’s stories of orange groves in the area and how the drought affected them. He then just thought about how an extreme drought would affect the planet. Although he knows climate change is an issue and sees the damage being done, he is still optimistic that humans will find a way to rescue the planet.

“We had a problem with the ozone [layer] and we solved that,” he said.

Decades ago the ozone layer was a focus for environmentalists. There was a push to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals – a push that worked. Scientists now feel the ozone layer is on track to recover within four decades.

“As we imagine a day without water, we imagine how our future generations [can] use their imagination to [show our future],” said James Bodnar, member of CVWD Board of Directors. “These kids are going to grow up and be leading us one day.”

State Senator Anthony Portantino was present at the event.

“I join our community in thanking [CVWD] and appreciate you putting this event on, and reminding us all how precious water is and how much we all have to get together to preserve it,” Portantino said. “It is important that we support our first responders.”

Lee ended the event by pointing out that the district is prepared for the future, from providing the portable water containers to help firefighters to storing 17 million gallons of water for the community. It has also advanced communications to help during disasters.

“We have another tool and today we’re kicking off a new service to the community,” he said. “In the event of an emergency [community members] can come to the reservoir or a local fire hydrant that we can hook up and everybody will have drinking water.”

In light of Hurricane Helene and the scarcity of water, this was good news.