Even as wildfires burn neighborhoods nearby, destroying the homes of some faculty and students, Pepperdine University is starting its spring semester by helping local firefighters in Los Angeles.
With firefighters in the area facing water shortages, the Christian university in Malibu has provided essential help by giving them access to the university’s two water reservoirs, which hold the school’s recycled and treated water. Helicopters suck up the water and can transfer it to firefighters on the ground or make water drops over the fires.
California governor Gavin Newsom shared a video of an LA County Fire Department helicopter pulling water from one of Pepperdine’s lakes, saying, “Multiple water refills in just a matter of minutes.”
“Pepperdine has a close, long-lasting relationship with the Los Angeles County Fire Department,” said Ricky Eldridge, associate vice president at Pepperdine University and leader of the Center for Sustainability, in a statement to CT. The school ensures “its lakes are available for them, along with any other jurisdictions fighting fires in the region (e.g., Cal Fire).”
The two lakes exist because Pepperdine designed its Malibu campus in the early 1970s with both fire safety and water conservation in mind. The school reports it has saved 4 billion gallons of water since 1972—enough to fill over 6,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
“This duty arises out of our belief that we are called to respect and care for the awesome gifts that God has bestowed upon us,” the university said in its sustainability policy.
Due to the tens of thousands of acres burning in the Los Angeles area, water supplies available to Los Angeles firefighters started to run short during the initial wildfire attack last week. The water shortages produced dramatic scenes, like a man begging a firefighter to turn the little remaining water on his home, according to The New York Times.
The problem was like putting too many straws in a cup of water, said Cal Fire public information officer Colin Noyes.
If you put one straw in a cup of water, “it’s going to take a while to empty it,” he said in an interview with CT. “But if you put too many [in] all at once trying to do all these different things—and you use the same water supply—you’re going to have issues, no matter where you are around the state.”
Santa Ana wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour have continued to threaten Los Angeles this week, which could lead to “explosive fire growth,” according to the National Weather Service. As of early Wednesday, the Palisades Fire was 18 percent contained, and the Eaton Fire was 35 percent contained. The fires have killed at least 25 people, and over a dozen are missing.
Pepperdine just survived the Franklin Fire in December, with students sheltering in place in the campus’s fireproof buildings. The school reported that the Franklin Fire in December burned brush that helped keep the Palisades Fire from spreading to Pepperdine.
Since the construction of the campus in 1972, Pepperdine has used recycled water as its main water source for irrigation and fire fighting. Drinking water, which becomes wastewater, is sent to one of two treatment facilities: the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility or the Malibu Mesa Water Reclamation Plant (a facility that Pepperdine helped pay to build). The water is then recycled back into the lakes.
Eldridge said Pepperdine is unique in that approximately 97 percent of campus irrigation comes from recycled water.
Additionally, the material collected from the bottom of the lakes during routine maintenance becomes a natural fertilizer around campus.
Water conservation has been a top priority at Pepperdine to try to combat the historically water-scarce region.
“Water supplies may only last another 20 years,” Pepperdine’s website states. “Many consider water availability the most considerable environmental concern facing California.”
The university is also helping firefighting by allowing helicopters to land in Alumni Park, a large green space on campus. Additionally, the campus is being used by the city of Malibu’s Emergency Operations Committee as a temporary headquarters and by SoCalGas as an incident command center.
Pepperdine has been no stranger to wildfires since the construction of its Malibu campus in 1972. The university has helped firefighters with several past fires, like the 2018 Woolsey Fire.
The fire resistance of campus structures, combined with a shelter-in-place policy that was developed with the LA Fire Department, is why the Pepperdine community can remain rather than evacuate like its neighbors when fires approach. The policy has been implemented several times, including during the Woolsey Fire in 2018 and the Franklin Fire early last month.
When LA firefighters use the Pepperdine lakes, the school takes extra maintenance measures.
“At certain times,” Eldridge said, “including when the region is experiencing ‘Red Flag’ conditions or the fire department is indicating they may wish to use the lakes, the university proactively increases the amount of water available in its lakes for fire suppression purposes. It also has the ability to efficiently and effectively raise and replenish its lakes as necessary to support fire resources at a rate consistent with fire department operations and demand.”
Pepperdine’s ability to control the water level in its lakes ensures that the increased use will not diminish the school’s water supply for the spring semester.
Due to the fires, the school delayed in-person classes. It has started the spring classes online and is preparing to return to in-person classes on January 21.
In a Monday briefing, president Jim Gash emphasized Pepperdine’s commitment to the local community and stressed the importance of praying and drawing near to God as the process of rebuilding continues into the coming weeks.
“I am confident, too, in the steadfast hope we have, even in the midst of ongoing trials,” he told the school last week. “As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4, ‘We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.’ And as the Psalmist assures us in Psalm 46, ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.’”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated that Pepperdine’s recycled water can be used for everyday tasks like laundry. It is used solely for irrigation and fire suppression.
