County of Ventura: fire suppression: backup energy source

The law aims to keep water flowing for firefighting during outages in Ventura County’s high-risk fire areas. It sets faster backup-power expectations, planning deadlines, and outage reporting requirements.

What the law does ​

• Requires covered water suppliers to have 24-hour backup energy or alternative water supply for critical fire-suppression wells and pumps by July 1, 2030.
• Allows mobile or mutual-aid backup power that can operate within 90 minutes of an outage, or as soon as practical after deenergization, and for at least 24 hours.
• Requires suppliers to notify the Ventura County Office of Emergency Services within three business days when nonstationary backup power misses the 90-minute target.
• Requires suppliers to establish emergency preparedness plans by July 1, 2027, review them annually, and activate them for County red flag warnings.
• Requires post-fire reports involving more than 10 uninhabitable homes to state whether delayed backup power was reported and how long critical infrastructure lacked power.

Who it affects ​

• Community water systems serving more than 20 homes in Ventura County high or very high fire hazard severity zones.
• Ventura County emergency-management and fire officials coordinating plans, receiving notices, and inspecting infrastructure.
• Residents and firefighters relying on water systems in covered fire-risk areas.

Context ​

Gravity-fed systems and non-fire-suppression recycled, irrigation, agricultural, and nonpotable water systems are excluded.