Pierce on LADWP inspections by U.S. EPA

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Although there is no evidence of water contamination, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to inspect nearly 100 drinking water reservoirs and storage tanks.

Millions of people rely on these systems, and the EPA wants to ensure LADWP is meeting federal and state drinking water standards.

Gregory Pierce, director of the UCLA Water Resources Group, stated in an interview on L.A. Times that while such actions are not common, there are instances in which federal agencies issue consent orders with local agencies over violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

“I do not see many [consent orders] for drinking water systems, and I do not see many announced in this way for issues that, yes, should be addressed, but are not of severe concern, especially since there is no evidence of contamination,” Pierce said.

Pierce added that he believes politics played a role in the decision. “I have no reason to think that this consent order would have happened if not for the politics between the federal government, the administration and the city of Los Angeles,” he said.

Pierce on the Closure of the Santa Ynez Reservoir during the Palisades Fire

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News that the Santa Ynez reservoir was empty and closed for repairs during the highly destructive Palisades Fire in January has led to a month-long state investigation ordered by Governor of California Gavin Newsom on whether or not use of the reservoir could have made a difference in combatting the flames.

The resulting report released by California agencies found that use of the reservoir could not have influenced the outcome of the wildfire, as the water flow rate would have been insufficient to keep fire hydrants working and even a full reservoir would not have been able to maintain the necessary water pressure for long. The report emphasized that the Santa Ynez reservoir is part of L.A.’s municipal water system whose primary purpose is not to fight wildfires, but rather to maintain a supply of clean drinking water.

Co-Executive Director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation and Director of the Human Right to Water Solutions Lab Greg Pierce shared his views on the report with LAist. “This report confirms what we and others have been saying more broadly regarding water system expectations and capabilities, but does so completely independently and with new details specific to the L.A. fires.”

L.A. County Water Bills Rising Faster Than Inflation, UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation Finds

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Water bills in Los Angeles County have surged nearly 60% over the past decade, outpacing inflation and intensifying financial strain for low-income households, according to new research from UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation and the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Researchers examined 663 water systems across six Southern California counties and found that water affordability and quality remain major issues. Many smaller systems — particularly in Kern County, which logged more than 1,500 water quality violations in the past decade — struggle with contamination from arsenic and bacteria.

Edith de Guzman, cooperative extension water researcher at UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation, said rising costs highlight the need for structural solutions. “It is concerning that we have this trend of rates outpacing inflation,” de Guzman said. “Somebody has to pick up the bill. It is increasingly challenging for some of our neighbors to do that, and if we don’t think about how to generate the political will and provide assistance to those communities, we will not only fail to achieve the human right to water, but we will be leaving a lot of our neighbors behind.”

Gregory Pierce, director of UCLA’s Human Right to Water Solutions Lab, warned that rising water rates are likely to worsen over the next two decades as aging infrastructure demands costly upgrades and new contaminant regulations take effect. “We have to invest more. But the money has to come from somewhere. And I guess right now we’re just saying, ‘It comes from you, local ratepayer, so you’re on your own,’” Pierce said.

Explore the updated Southern California Community Water Systems Atlas to see how water quality and affordability vary across Southern California communities.

UCLA Student Research Drives Water Resilience and Equitable Solutions in Post-Fire Los Angeles

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A team of UCLA master’s students in urban and regional planning (MURP) has produced an extensive report, “Drought and Climate Resiliency Solutions for Small Water Systems in Los Angeles County,” offering real-world strategies to strengthen water security and climate resilience. 

When the January 2025 wildfires swept through Pacific Palisades, a group of MURP students witnessed the devastation unfold in real time on their first day of class. What started as a class project on water system vulnerabilities quickly became a real-world assignment: students, many personally affected by the fires, sprang into action to research and propose solutions that not only addressed the immediate impacts of the wildfires but also offered long-term strategies to strengthen water security and climate resilience. 

Developed in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and guided by faculty at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, the year-long project examines the vulnerabilities of small water systems, many of which were directly impacted by the L.A. wildfires, and proposes solutions to ensure safe and reliable drinking water for fire-impacted communities across Los Angeles County. 

The twelve-student research team included Alex Sun, Allison Samsel, Aydin Pasebani, Catherine Ren, Chloe Curry, Dana Choi, Emily Cadena, Leo Blain, Leila Moinpour, Nasir Sakandar, Veronica De Santos, and Will Callan. They conducted in-depth analyses on drought risk, wildfire impacts, and system preparedness, culminating in a professional presentation of their findings. Their work is already informing county and state-wide efforts to advance the human right to water and shape long-term climate resilience strategies. 

“This work by our student team will serve to directly inform real-time L.A. County and California state agency efforts to ensure a human right to water in the region,” said Greg Pierce, UCLA professor of urban planning, Luskin Center for Innovation senior director, and director of the Human Rights to Water Solutions Lab who co-advised the report. “The methodologies developed on drought water shortage risk and fire vulnerability also have wide applicability well beyond the county.”  

Edith de Guzman, adjunct professor of urban planning and water equity and adaptation policy cooperative extension specialist at Luskin Center for Innovation was another co-advisor on the project and underscored the importance of the students’ work. “This project benefited greatly from the hard work, diligence, and nimbleness of a dozen MURP students,” de Guzman said. “In the end, the result is an impressive suite of actionable assessments, analyses, and findings — all painstakingly documented.”  

A key emphasis of the report is the feasibility of water system consolidation, an approach that can improve technical and financial stability for struggling utilities. Alongside consolidation, the report also considers alternative strategies such as water conservation, new well development, and recycling projects. 

“This suite of outcomes contributes innovative new guidance in understudied and largely unregulated spaces — including community water system fire risk and preparedness,” said de Guzman. 

Pierce praised the students’ work following the capstone presentation: “You did amazing work that culminated in a professional presentation that demonstrates real solutions for climate resiliency in small water systems. But at its core, this report is about water access as a human right. You should all be very proud.” 

The findings are a partial preview of the Southern California Community Water Systems Guide, which will be released by Luskin Center for Innovation in late Summer 2025. This guide will present performance data on all community water systems in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties, building on analyses completed in 2015 and 2020, which focused only on Los Angeles County.  

Pierce on Water Utility System Challenges in California

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Greg Pierce, research and co-executive director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, was a recent guest on a Brookings Institution podcast, joining a discussion on challenges faced by Southern California’s water systems as climate conditions become more severe. The Metro Blueprint episode focused on this year’s destructive wildfires which exposed long-standing issues with systems regionally and beyond. Pierce said that several challenges to water infrastructure stemmed from the L.A. wildfires, which were unlike any seen before until recent years. “In other ways, it’s been seven to eight years, so we’ve seen this a number of times, and we’ve seen where the fires, when they hit heavily populated areas, are really hitting all aspects of water infrastructure,” he said. “But it’s not only drinking water or water supply either. There’s profound impacts to stormwater, stormwater quality, especially because of the really toxic stuff that’s burning in urban fires, as well as stormwater quantity, because the ecosystem is changing.”

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Pierce on L.A.’s Just Energy Transition Initiative

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Greg Pierce, research and co-executive director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, co-authored a correspondence piece in the April 2025 publication of nature energy on lessons learned from L.A.’s just energy transition initiative. The city’s commitment to reach a 100 percent renewable equitable electricity grid by 2035 was followed by a 2021 study establishing the feasibility of local grid decarbonization pathways which emphasized that only justice-oriented strategies would ensure equity outcomes. Pierce and his co-authors were part of the LA100 Equity Strategies effort, a two-year partnership between the city’s electric utility — the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) — researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, UCLA, and local community-based organizations (CBOs) which was concluded in late 2023. In the nature energy piece, Pierce and colleagues summarize what other cities can learn from their findings and include five key insights that may be helpful for other cities working on a just transition.

Pierce on Restoring California’s Salton Sea

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Greg Pierce, director of UCLA’s Human Right to Water Solutions Lab at UCLA Luskin, commented in a USA Today story about efforts to revive California’s Salton Sea. Once a popular aquatic recreational destination 50 miles southeast of Palm Springs, the 343-square-mile former desert basin has, over the years, become regarded as an environmental disaster. While earlier efforts to restore the state’s largest lake have lacked adequate funding, the existence of lithium deposits beneath the lake and a state bill creating a conservancy focused on rehabilitating the area, along with state and federal funding, have increased the possibility of stabilization and restoration. “I think the lithium money there does actually increase the odds of salvageability just because there are so many resources potentially to invest,” said Pierce, an adjunct associate professor of urban planning and co-executive of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation.

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Pierce on Building Resilient Water Systems

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Greg Pierce, director of UCLA’s Human Right to Water Solutions Lab at UCLA Luskin, commented in an Associated Press story about creating resilient water and waste systems for historically neglected communities most vulnerable to climate change. A report, published by the Pacific Institute, with DigDeep and the Center for Water Security and Cooperation, highlights ways that communities where climate change has disrupted access to water can use nature-based solutions paired with technology while also pointing out barriers to implementation. It notes that funding for critical infrastructure projects has been cut or paused under the Trump administration. The report “comes at a very depressing moment where we’re not going to see federal action in this space, it doesn’t seem, for the next four years,” said Pierce, an adjunct associate professor of urban planning and co-executive director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation.

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Pierce on California’s Drought Dilemma

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Greg Pierce, director of UCLA’s Human Right to Water Solutions Lab, commented in a Guardian article on California’s drought, which is predicted to worsen in the coming months despite recent heavy rains. Southern California’s driest start to its rainy season in recorded history is accompanied by a lower-than-average snow pack in the Sierra mountain range, while the Southwest is experiencing a La Niña weather pattern characterized by a dry winter season. Mountain snows, which are crucial to the flow of the Colorado River during spring and summer, also did not materialize. The Colorado River supplies millions of people with water across the Southwest. “We are near a tipping point on the Colorado,” said Pierce, an adjunct associate professor of urban planning and co-executive director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, noting that climate change is going to reduce the river’s predictable flow.

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Pierce on State of L.A.’s Water System

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Gregory Pierce, director of UCLA’s Human Right to Water Solutions Lab at UCLA Luskin, commented in media outlets including POLITICO, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Reuters and LAist on the devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles region. Firefighting — already hampered by strong Santa Ana winds — has been further diminished by lack of water, which has left some fire hydrants dry. While local and state leaders are receiving criticism for the area’s lack of preparation, some fire experts and urban water experts have described the situation as “the perfect storm” and “the worst-case scenario,” which no city could have fully prepared for. “I don’t know that any place in the world has a system like that,” said Pierce, who also serves as co-director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. Pierce explained that such a system for fighting wildfires would be extremely expensive as well as come with potentially negative climate impacts that could create further fire risks.

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