By Edith Moreno
When an LADWP water valve and nearby temporary water pipe broke earlier this month, 9,200 households in Porter Ranch and Granada Hills were left without drinkable water for 5 days. In addition to disrupting lives and damaging property, the incident raises an important question: Is LADWP keeping pace with the core infrastructure investments required to deliver safe and reliable water service every day?
The Current State of Play
LADWP manages over 7,000 miles of water mains and trunk lines. According to the utility’s 2024 Water Infrastructure Plan, at least 30% of these mains are more than 80 years old, and some of the utility water infrastructure exceeds 100 years old. The failed valve that started the Porter Ranch outage itself was installed in the 1960’s, although age itself isn't always a defining factor in why something failed - environmental conditions and type of pipe material are also major factors.
Aging pipes and equipment, and having pieces of equipment that fail or break is not unique to Los Angeles – no utility system is immune to the effects of aging infrastructure; they all have to manage equipment failures. According to a 2025 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers, some of the nation’s oldest drinking water pipes were laid in the 19th century, and even some newer pipes that were laid post–World War II are reaching or have reached the end of their design life. So, the question therefore is not whether LADWP is in some unique position vis-à-vis its water system, but rather - how good is the utility at managing a common industry challenge?
For the 2024 fiscal year, LADWP set an annual target of replacing up to 240,000 feet of mainline to support long term system sustainability. In the year prior, LADWP replaced 236,500 feet of these lines. The utility also installed 85,000 feet of earthquake-resistant pipe over the last three years, exceeding its target for that category.
Performance on leaks has also been improving in recent years: LADWP reports show it had 14.7 leaks per 100 miles in 2023 -2024, compared to a national average of around 25.
Put together with other indicators – LADWP is demonstrating significant progress, backed by serious goals, and spending real money ($7 billion over 5 years) to do it.
Past Spending Gaps in Operations and Maintenance
In the past, the picture has been less encouraging when looking at spending of operations and maintenance (O&M) budgets for LADWP - though the transparency of tracking expenditures against budget targets is often murky. A study by our office (the Ratepayer advocate) in 2020 observed that “LADWP tends to underspend its capital budgets in both the power and water businesses” and noted that water O&M is generally lower than other utilities - meaning the utility at that time faced challenges both in spending efficiency and in delivering planned projects.
Further, a 2021 review of the Water System’s repair and replacement data by major asset class indicated that “despite increasing replacement rates in recent years and maintaining a leak rate that is lower than the national average, many asset classes at that time such as mainline and large valves had replacement cycles that extend far beyond their average useful life.”
In light of the Porter Ranch incident, these past findings point to an important question of how LADWP will continue its recent improvements in water infrastructure maintenance – and how upcoming actions on utility rates and investments can support utility excellence.
Clear Targets and Accountability
Our office has long argued that LADWP should have clear performance metrics for water infrastructure replacement - and the 2024 Water infrastructure plan attempts to do just that. Metrics that create measurable, trackable goals, and documentation that show how the utility hits them consistently are key to building public confidence.
However – even with a healthy budget for Water Infrastructure maintenance, tracking real time progress against established metrics remains elusive as the utility does not manage public facing dashboards for the water system as it does for the electric side of the house. Further, while the utility has a series of ”rates” metrics that are meant to track performance, little if any metrics are included that align with the utility water infrastructure plan or that show customer impact.
The Path Forward
While LADWP continues to implement its Water Infrastructure Plan, for ratepayers the takeaway from the recent water outages is straightforward:
1) Maintain and Fund Core O&M - LADWP needs to ensure budgets for distribution system maintenance are not just approved, but fully executed. And regardless of the mechanisms for the O&M funding - the work must be aligned with the system needs.
2) Tie Ratemaking to the Cost of Meeting Deliverables - it is expected that LADWP will initiate a needed water rate case and associated technical analysis soon. In the upcoming effort, it will be important to align funding with specific, measurable infrastructure goals so that LADWP secures the funding it needs to do the job right.
3) Increase Transparency - The Ratepayer Advocate office works to unpack utility data, track expenditures, and assess effectiveness of utility programs. One of those programs is the LADWP Water Infrastructure Plan (WIP) that is published on the LADWP website and social media. Making progress toward WIP goals more transparent by having the utility publish regular, easy-to-read and relevant metrics and dashboards for the public – such as those on mainline and trunk line replacement progress, leak rates, and O&M budget execution - will go a long way to improving confidence in utility efforts.
4) Integrate New and Existing Assets - Major projects like Pure Water LA and other major supply projects are key to water resiliency going forward. As the utility plans for and executed these investments, they must be complemented by a reliable, up-to-date distribution infrastructure.
A Constructive Call to Action
Before the Porter Ranch outage, LADWP hadn't experienced a regional outage caused directly by water infrastructure failure for many years - possibly even dating back to the 1960's. So, the recent outage event shouldn't be seen as an indictment—it’s a reminder. LADWP has made progress in several areas, and its leadership has set ambitious goals for the city’s water future. At the same time, it’s clear that sustaining and accelerating core infrastructure work—supported by transparent metrics and disciplined budget execution—is what’s needed for new supply to reach every tap reliably and safely when it comes online.