Post-Wildfire Water Safety: Why Checking Your Water Quality is Crucial

The ongoing wildfires in the greater Los Angeles, CA area have been devastating for residents in the Los Angeles area. Those of us lucky enough to still have our homes are facing many issues, including severely compromised air quality due to smoke making its way into our homes. What’s easier to forget, however, is the impact these fires are having on the area’s water supply, especially in heavily-affected areas like the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.

Wildfire runoff can contaminate local water sources, while damaged infrastructure at water treatment and transport facilities might introduce harmful substances into your home’s water. For example, high levels of carcinogens like benzene were found in the water supply after wildfires in 2017 and 2018, and similar issues are facing some households and businesses now in Southern California.

Even after these wildfires are extinguished, debris, ash, and chemicals from burned structures can seep into rivers, reservoirs, and groundwater. Harmful contaminants such as heavy metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and bacteria may infiltrate your water supply. Even Southern California’s water treatment systems, which typically filter water before it reaches your tap, are facing challenges and may not be able to treat the water supply properly.

Even if not damaged, many municipal water treatment plants may not have the capacity to effectively handle the sheer volume of wildfire-related contaminants. For those homes in the greater Los Angeles area that use private wells, the risks are even higher since these systems lack municipal oversight and additional treatment processes.

Currently, it appears that the main reservoirs serving the greater Los Angeles area have not been directly compromised. However, the infrastructure that processes and delivers that water, such as at treatment facilities, storage systems, and in pipes, are prone to contamination. With high water demand and lower pressure in the system, substances like soot and toxic gases are essentially pulled into the water system by a vacuum effect through open hydrants, damaged pipes, and vents. They then get circulated around the system.

While some areas in the greater Los Angeles region don’t appear to have severe issues currently, others are dealing with contamination. That’s why earlier this month, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power warned residents to avoid drinking, cooking, or even bathing for long periods using tap water. Residents should stay tuned to warnings and advisories from their local municipality regarding water safety.

If your home is safe to inhabit again, you can take the step of testing your own water for various pollutants to determine contamination levels and take steps to protect your household’s health. Drinking or using contaminated water can lead to serious health issues, including gastrointestinal illnesses, skin irritation, and long-term complications from chemical exposure including higher risk of certain cancers. The issue is magnified for children, who are more sensitive to these pollutants. That’s why it’s critical to assess your water quality immediately following a wildfire and take steps to address any water quality issues, especially as bottled water supplies become limited due to extreme increases in demand.

Our water quality testing service involves analyzing your water’s pH and testing for various contaminants, including bacteria, heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and iron, gases like radon, nitrates, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). When we conduct a water quality test, we collect water samples from key points in your home’s plumbing system for analysis. We can then provide report outlining any contaminants we found, along with their concentration levels.

This process helps us identify the specific risks present in your water supply. Once we have a clear picture, we can recommend water filtration solutions tailored to your home’s needs. Whether you’re dealing with chemical runoff, ash and soot buildup, microbial contamination due to a failed municipal water treatment system, or all of the above, understanding the problem is the first step toward establishing a safer water supply after the fires.

Once we understand from the test results how your water is affected, we can recommend any number of advanced water treatment systems that filter out, adsorb, or neutralize those harmful substances. While some homes in the area already have whole-home water softeners to reduce limescale buildup and other issues caused by LA’s hard water problem, these don’t remove the pollutants that are associated with contamination and damage caused by the wildfires.

Water softeners are designed to tackle hard water issues by removing minerals like calcium and magnesium, and don’t address chemical or microbial contamination. They use a process called ion exchange, which replaces hard water minerals with sodium or potassium ions. While this process improves water softness, it doesn’t remove other types of impurities.

Whole-home water purification systems address contamination for all the water entering your home, making them a better solution than softeners or single-point filters for wildfire-based contamination. These systems can remove sediment, chlorine, VOCs, gases, and certain heavy metals, depending on the type of filter used. They also remove these substances from all your faucets and taps, including for bathing, rather than single-point systems that only affect water coming from a single sink or faucet.

For homes affected by wildfire runoff, filtration systems with activated carbon or catalytic carbon filters are particularly effective at removing chemical contaminants. However, these have their limitations. Combining them with other systems can provide more complete protection. For example, reverse osmosis (RO) systems are among the most effective water treatment options available. These systems use a semipermeable membrane to remove a wide range of contaminants, including heavy metals, nitrates, and VOCs. When paired with a whole-home filtration system, RO systems provide an added layer of protection by addressing contaminants that other systems might miss.

RO systems are especially useful for homes affected by wildfire runoff because they offer near-complete removal of dissolved solids. However, they can be less practical as a standalone solution for treating all the water in your home due to their slower processing speed and higher water waste. As with each individual type of water treatment system, it needs to be sized for your capacity needs, and combining it with other whole-home water filtration solutions can help overcome its limitations and challenges.

For example, to address microbial contamination, ultraviolet (UV) water purification systems are an excellent addition. These systems use UV light to kill bacteria, viruses, and other living pathogens, ensuring your water for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, bathing, washing clothes, and other uses is free of dangerous organisms. UV systems are often used alongside filtration or RO systems to provide broader protection, since UV doesn’t have any ability to remove cancer-causing chemicals, particulates such as soot and ash, or toxic gases. That’s why they’re typically part of a multi-system approach to water treatment, especially in post-wildfire scenarios, as most wildfire-related contamination can’t be addressed with a UV light purifier.

Selecting the right water treatment system depends on your specific water quality issues and household needs. For most homes affected by wildfire-related contamination, a combination of systems—such as a whole-home filtration system paired with an RO unit or UV purifier—offers the best protection. That’s why water quality testing is so important. Once you identify exactly what issues your water has, a professional can guide you to design a system that addresses those specific forms of contamination.

The aftermath of a wildfire is a challenging time for any household, and water safety should be a top priority. By testing your water and investing in a reliable whole-home water treatment system, you can stay safer from the hidden dangers of wildfire-contaminated water and avoid the rush as everyone seeks out bottled water supplies at the same time.

At Monkey Wrench Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electric, we’re here to help Los Angeles residents safeguard their water supply with customized solutions tailored to your needs. We can help with water quality testing and discuss how we can help you achieve safer, cleaner water for your home. Contact us to schedule your water quality test in Los Angeles and explore the best treatment options for your family.