Edhat StaffSource: Montecito Water District
The catastrophic impact of the mudslides in Montecito has been tragic, to say the least. From the moment this devastation began, Montecito Water District’s focus has been supporting first responders and working as expeditiously as possible to restore water service to the Montecito community. The intensity of the storm event is beyond dispute, as evidenced by the massive boulders which were dislodged by the mudslides. We have all been impacted by this tragedy.
On Tuesday, January 16th, 2018 we learned that Montecito Water District was named as a Defendant in a lawsuit that has been filed as a result of the mudslides. The District believes that the filing of this action at this time is unfortunate, and any allegations of liability on the part of the District are irresponsible, highly speculative, and premature. The District is confident that forensic evidence and expert analysis will show that to be true. Nevertheless, now that litigation is pending, on the advice of District counsel, Montecito Water District will have no further comment at this time.
If it is found that the Water District system failed and caused or contributed to the mudslide, then the entire water system should be shut down, permanently removed and no new water pipelines or systems allowed to be installed in Montecito. There is no way that any water system can be made fail-proof. The loss of life and environmental damage caused by the mudslide must not be repeated.
If the lawsuits result in any significant losses to any of the 8 water districts in Montecito (MWD is just the largest), could that result in bankruptcy and loss of water systems? MWD is not the cause of the disaster and did have reasonable safety systems in place.
The alternate power generators were neither turned on nor self sufficient in preventing the reservoirs to unload themselves on top of the rainfall.
There is little doubt that this contributed considerably to the mudslides.
So, as sad as it is : YES there is a responsibility in NOT having assured that these generators would do their job.
Word on the street is that THE law firm to hire for litigation to get the maximum amount from the entities is Whiplash, Loophole & Statutory a top flight legal firm.