Public Drinking Water Suppliers, Wildfire Liability, & Inverse Condemnation
In a letter to the “Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost & Recovery”, organizations and public water suppliers encourage the Legislature and Governor to address the negative impact the existing wildfire liability regime has on California’s public drinking water suppliers, their ratepayers, and dependability of the state’s drinking water systems.
To address the inequities of the current wildfire liability regime, the Commission should propose, and the Legislature should adopt, a clear and unambiguous standard that public drinking water systems are not subject to strict liability when their facilities are unable to provide sufficient amounts of water or water pressure to prevent the spread of a fire, so long as the fire was not started by the public drinking water system. We should not wait for one or more public water suppliers to declare bankruptcy before addressing this significant issue.
