The Palisades water restriction is being lifted on Friday, two months since the deadly wildfire began.
The Palisades water restriction is being lifted on Friday, two months since the deadly wildfire began.
Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed and the road to recovery is long.
The Department of Water and Power reminds residents in the Palisades to let all of their faucets and water run at full power for 10 minutes inside and outside their home.
They should flush all of their toilets and run their dishwasher and washing machine before using any water today.
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“If you have a water heater, let it flush till the water is no longer, it becomes cold again. same thing, replacing filters for refrigerators and ice making machines,” Dr. Christopher Olivares Martinez with the University of California in Irvine said. Clean water is a significant step in rebuilding as well as getting power back on.
The agency asked resident to take the following steps.
- Prepare your site for flushing by removing aerators and screens from all faucets. Set water-softening devices and filters, both point-of-use and whole-house to bypass mode.
- Flush outside plumbing by opening and flushing any external fixtures and hose bibs/faucets for about 10 minutes or until water is clear and temperature is constant.
- Flush cold water by running all cold-water faucets on the property beginning with the faucet closest to the water line. Run the water at the highest flow (or fully open) for about 10 minutes or until water is clear and temperature is constant. Then turn off all faucets in reverse order.
- Flush all toilets and urinals at least once but repeat if the refilled water is not clear.
- Flush hot water by draining your hot water tank to discharge any accumulated sediments. Wait for the hot water tank to refill and flush, as in Step 3 (flush cold water).
- Clean aerators and screens and reattach to faucets, shower heads and fixtures.
- Flush appliances by running an empty dishwasher and washing machine once on the rinse cycle.
- Empty ice from ice maker bin, run ice maker and discard two additional batches of ice.
- Restore all removed filters and reset all water devices from bypass mode.
Each property will have instructions on-site to assist with the flushing process. DWP General Manager Janisse Quiñones said there are nearly 100 miles of water pipes in the area that serve more than 8,400 homes and businesses.
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Customers will be credited $50 to their DWP account so they can flush out their pipes without worrying about an extra cost.
So far, 800 temporary power poles have been installed along Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset. However, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and LADWP announced that they want to underground all power lines in the Palisades.
The massive project will start soon and will take years to complete.
DWP estimates it will cost between $1 million to $4 million dollars per mile and hopes FEMA money and private donors will help.
It is likely that customers will have to take on some of the cost, too.
