In the wake of the Los Angeles fires, President Trump blamed California for not sending enough water to help with firefighting efforts. Water experts debunked that claim – saying there was plenty of water already in Southern California to battle the deadly blazes.
But President Trump recently directed big water releases from two dams in Tulare County, implying it would have prevented the fires if it happened sooner. The move flummoxed farmers who rely on that water for irrigation.
According to a statement from local irrigation districts, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flushed more than 2 billion gallons out of the dams at Lake Kaweah and Lake Success between Jan. 31 and Feb. 2. The agency said it was to help combat wildfires in Southern California under an executive order the president signed last month.
“All we’re doing is giving Los Angeles and the entire state of California virtually unlimited water,” Trump said at the Oval Office last week.
The Los Angeles fires are fully contained at this point. But experts say the water would have been no use to firefighters in the city – which is nearly 200 miles south. Reservoirs there already have plenty, according to Jay Lund, a water scientist and professor at UC Davis.
“If you took the surface area of the wildfires, you could cover them in 20-25 feet of water with all the water that's already in reservoirs in that region,” he said.
In some cases firefighters reported hydrants going dry and a lack of water to extinguish the blazes. Lund says the issue was getting the water that already was there to burning neighborhoods using infrastructure that was never built to handle so much demand.
That means the Trump administration’s move to release water from Central California didn’t address the problem, he says. And it likely won’t help farmers who rely on that water to irrigate their crops come spring.
“It’s not clear if it, in fact, will be useful at all,” he said
Water gets stored behind the dams as snow melts down from the Sierra Nevada peaks. As spring turns into summer, and things get hot, water managers then slowly release that water for farmers to use. The Central Valley is among the nation’s most productive farmland.
“It’s our water. We need to make sure we have enough for our crops,” said Joel Issak, a Tulare County citrus farmer.
A recent snow survey measured one of the driest Januarys on record for this part of the Sierra. That means less water behind the dam for crops.
Isaak is worried he won’t have a drop to spare this season, especially as a state law that limits groundwater pumping begins to take effect across much of the Valley.
“We’re overdrawing the aquifer now. We need to replenish the water that we’re taking out” he said.
Water managers and farmers say that Trump’s release of water came too early in the season to be useful for growers. As a result, they may have less water for crops when they need it.
Still, Isaak and many of the Valley’s growers say they stand behind Trump.
“I don't think Valley growers feel that this was in any way done as an intentional, you know, attack on Valley agriculture,” said Tricia Stever-Blattler, Tulare County Farm Bureau CEO.
Like much of the San Joaquin Valley, Tulare County voted for Trump by big margins in November.
“There's a general feeling of encouragement and excitement that these orders are taking on some very challenging issues here in this state,” Stever-Blattler adds.
For the farm bureau, that includes pushing for more water to go to farmers, and less to be saved for an endangered fish called the Delta Smelt.
“In general, farmers are supportive of what President Trump is trying to do in, you know, relaxing some of the really draconian environmental laws in California,” Stever-Blattler said.
But any challenge to the way water is regulated in the state has an uncertain future. California sued over similar efforts during Trump’s first term.
