California American Water
Mitigating Risk, Increasing Resiliency
California American Water has been focusing on three primary goals to prepare to respond to threats posed by Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS), wildfires and other natural disasters—mitigate and reduce risk to company infrastructure, increase operational resiliency to respond to wildfires and other natural disasters in the company’s service territories, and identify areas for improvement at its facilities (i.e. vegetation management, emergency generation, overall resiliency etc.).
A review of California American Water’s systems and the California Public Utilities Commission’s Extreme and Elevated Fire Threat Map identified 54 sites that needed assessments to determine wildfire risk, vegetation management needs and the potential impact of PSPS. Through June of 2020, California American Water has endeavored to clear excess vegetation from nearly all identified extreme fire zone sites.
California American Water will continue to work closely with local operations to assess needs and adapt to changing conditions so that our systems are better prepared to withstand the impacts of future PSPS events, wildfires and other natural disasters. The company will continue developing and maintaining relationships with our local and regional emergency management and electric utility partners to stay updated on the latest information and resources.
