By Eliza PARTIKA

Foothill Municipal Water District and retail water agencies throughout La Crescenta, Altadena and La Cañada will continue discussing the prospect of agency consolidation in August, after a June meeting in which representatives from all eight local water agencies talked through pros and cons of consolidation and whether there is enough interest in studying consolidation’s effects on the community.

Representatives from the boards of the Foothill Municipal Water District, Kinneloa Irrigation District, Valley Water Company, Crescenta Valley Water District, La Cañada Irrigation District, Las Flores Water Company, Lincoln Avenue Water Company and Rubio Cañon Land & Water Association attended the initial meeting in June. However, as of this writing, only four have agreed to move forward with discussions regarding the efficacy of consolidation: Crescenta Valley Water District, Las Flores Water Company, Valley Water Company and Foothill Municipal Water District [Foothill Municipal]. 

Frank Colcord, director of Foothill Municipal, said the goal of the August meeting will be to create a working group that would decide on a process to further evaluate the potential benefits and drawbacks of consolidating and to decide the parameters for a study to determine whether consolidation is in the water agencies’ – and community’s – best interest. 

“We’ve acknowledged for years there are both pros and cons to consolidation, but maybe this is the time to at least think about if the pros outweigh the cons,” Colcord said. 

Foothill Municipal purchases imported water from Metropolitan Water District, and in turn sells it to the retail water agencies in La Crescenta, La Cañada and Altadena. Damage from the Eaton Fire resulted in significant financial losses from damaged infrastructure and loss of revenue from customers for Altadena water companies, said Colcord. He told the CV Weekly he believes consolidation has the potential to help sustainably provide water to the foothills amidst challenges like aging infrastructure, lost resources from the Eaton Fire and emerging threats to water quality. 

The Eaton Fire severely impacted the water resources and infrastructure in Altadena. Initial estimated damages from the Eaton Fire in January 2025, as recorded by Foothill Municipal, the Los Flores Water Company lost approximately 1,100 service connections of 1,480 connections serving 4,500 customers –  74% percent. Of the 23 total water reservoirs in Altadena, seven were damaged in the Eaton Fire. In addition, Lincoln Avenue Water Company lost over half of its service connections and Rubio Cañon lost 35%. 

“In addition to the number of customers lost, when you lose a customer, you lose their revenue. So that’s one of the biggest problems these agencies have right now, from a business standpoint … they don’t have anywhere near as much income coming in as normal to pay their employees or their taxes or their water bills to [Foothill Municipal] or things like that. So that’s a big problem for them right now,” said Colcord. “But they also lost a bunch of infrastructure.”

After the Eaton Fire, water agencies in Altadena went to the state to request funding that would make up for financial losses and the loss of infrastructure as a result of the fire. The recently approved state budget now includes $4 million of the $120 million in requested funding for infrastructure repair. But in order to receive state funding for lost revenue, said Colcord, California requires a study to determine whether the agencies and community would benefit from agency consolidation. The August meeting would renew the discussion around consolidation, and review what it would take for some or all of the agencies to move forward with consolidation, if they choose to.

The June meeting discussed some benefits of consolidation, including the possibility of establishing a more robust system that can meet the renewed demands of the area and creating a pathway to becoming a larger, public agency that could gain easier access to public funds. 

Consolidation, if decided upon, would be no easy feat. While consolidation would allow for a larger base of paying customers who would pay full rates, both public and private companies would be seeking to merge – and melding different governing structures could prove challenging. Creating rates based on differences in the age and quality of infrastructure and identifying common priorities for constituents is another hurdle to overcome. 

But some leaders at the June meeting were confident that those moving forward have the ability to find a solution that works.   

“I didn’t anticipate that the conversation or consolidation would be accelerated by the recent fires, but they have and I believe there’s something of a spotlight on us. I think it’s constructive to approach our situation as an opportunity,” said James Lee, head of Crescenta Valley Water District.

Public comment was largely in support of consolidation but also revealed the cost the fires had on communities. 

“We have lost too much as a community and don’t need to see bureaucracy fumbling decisions about our future. It is our community, not yours,” said an Altadena resident who spoke in June. 

“All my neighbors are worried about building infrastructure like water, electricity and gas. There’s no leaders. You should be the leaders of this and show them how it is done.” said another. 

Another asked what the role of the state and county would be in providing assistance to the companies themselves and to rate payers in a transition. 

At the close of the meeting, a local resident and retired executive from Irvine Ranch Water District summed up the anticipations for the next phase of planning. 

“I think we owe it to our customers to consider all [of] the options and move forward with the next step, which is not necessarily consolidation, because there’s advantages and disadvantages, but to at least do a study and see if it makes sense.”