During a visit in the fire areas of Los Angeles on Friday, President Trump tried to convince the California officials that the state's water management system needs a profound revision.
Trump announced that he would agree to an implementing regulations “to open the pumps and valves in the north”.
“We want the water to flow down here as soon as possible, let hundreds of millions of gallons flow to southern California, and that will be a great advantage for them,” he said before a meeting of city, district and city representatives, state officials in the Los Angeles Fire Department Station 69 in Pacific Palisades.
“We have to have this water. “You speak of unlimited water,” said Trump. “You will never run out of water, there will never be bottlenecks, and there will be no such thing, and if it does, then you have a lot of water to extinguish.”
Experts said Trump's statements tried to connect the fire fighting with the local water supply How to handle water in northern California were inaccurate. Water managers and researchers said that there is currently no lack of water in the cities of southern California and that the reserves of the region are used up Record values According to abundant deliveries in 2023 and 2024.
At the beginning of this week, Trump A command “Put people over fish” and instruct the federal authorities to reopen the work in order to lead “more water” from the Sacramento san Joaquin River Delta to other parts of the state, “for use by the people there, which urgently is a reliable water supply need”.
Trump has also explained that he wanted to make the Federal Aid dependent on the forest fire fighting whether California accepts changes in water policy.
President Trump welcomes Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday after his arrival at the Lax.
(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)
Governor Gavin Newsom, who briefly met Trump at Los Angeles International Airport, has said A change in water management in Northern California would not have influenced fire fighting. The governor's office said on social media This week he said that California “now pumps as much water as it was possible under the previous policy of Trump era” and that “there is no lack of water in Southern California”.
Despite sufficient supplies in the reservoirs, the local water systems reached their limits because the fires spread quickly due to strong winds.
With the La County water system Losted pressure In parts of Pacific Palisades some hydrants ran dry in high -lying areaswhich hinders the fire fighting. Newsom last week an investigation arranged This was due to the loss of water pressure due to hydrants and the lack of available water from a reservoir in Pacific Palisades Due to repair work out of operation.
“When these fires broke out, there was plenty of water in Southern California,” said Bruce Reznik, Managing Director of the Environmental Organization Los Angeles Waterkeeper. “The solutions proposed by the President to improve water security in our region are impractical and are based on a faulty understanding of the state's water system.”
During a visit to North Carolina on Friday, Trump said that he wanted to find out “why they don't release the water”.
Trump also tried to change the California water regulations and guidelines during his first term. But if his administration adopted water rules The state and nature conservation groups successfully contested the changes in court that environmental protection was weakened.
The way for the bidet government was therefore free to develop the current plan and the supportive biological reports in cooperation with the NewsOM government, which determine how much water can be pumped and how river flows are controlled in the delta.
The rules regulate the operation of dams, aqueducts and pumping stations in the Central Valley Project and in the State Water Project, two of the largest water systems in the world that supply millions of hectares and around 30 million people with water.
Pumps for the supply of farms and cities have contributed to the ecological deterioration of the delta, where the fish species that are classified as threatened or endangered, the Steelhead trout, two types of chinook salmon, long-finish stint, delustrator and green sturgeon belong.
Trump indicated that he wants to weaken the protective measures for the delta stint, a finger-length way that has decreased sharply and assumed that it is affected Shortly before extinction In the wild.
“They talk about the delta stint,” said Trump. “It doesn't have to be protected. People in California have to be protected. “
The US MP Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield) thanked Trump for his positions and said that “ensuring reliable and stable water supply is of crucial importance.”
Fong said that Trump's executive order “would have a big impact”.
Trump said that the changes would benefit California agriculture and said that the arable land in Central Valley had been disadvantaged because “they lead the water into the Pacific Ocean”.
Trump tries to change the California water policy at a time when Newsom pursues large water infrastructure projects, including a $ 20 billion plan Build a water tunnel Below the delta and a plan Build sites reservoir in Northern California, the state's first new large reservoir for decades.
Trump did not discuss these projects during his visit.
Karla Nemeth, director of the California Ministry of Water Resources, said Trump's plans could fail This affects the water supply of farms and municipalities as well as threatened fish stocks.
Environmentalists say that Trump's orders could prove to be catastrophic for salmon and other fish species as well as the deteriorating ecosystem of the delta.
Reznik said that the federal government could help instead of Trump's approach in the LA region by providing more investments to improve the resilience of its local water systems.
“More money for wastewater recycling, rainwater absorption, groundwater renovation and maintenance would prepare us for the future,” said Reznik. “Send more water to agriculture in Central Valley will not work.”
Reznik and other critics said that the changes intended by Trump would endangered fish at risk and the deteriorating ecosystem of the Sacramento san Joaquin River Delta.
The pumping of more water from the delta about the Central Valley Project managed by the Federal Government would particularly benefit agriculture in San Joaquin Valley, where Trump enjoys some of his greatest support in the state.
“Every American should be aware of what the president is doing here,” said Reznik. “In a time of extreme crisis and tragedy, he uses this emergency to fill the bags of his wealthy patrons – in this case of industrial agricultural producers in San Joaquin Valley – at the expense of the remaining of us.”