Trump says he opened California’s water. Local officials say he nearly flooded them

POLITICO

SACRAMENTO, California — President Donald Trump declared victory on Friday in his long-running water war with California, boasting he sent billions of gallons south — but local officials say they narrowly prevented him from possibly flooding farms.
He referred further questions about the decision to maximize water releases to Army Corps headquarters.
Aaron Fukuda, the general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, also confirmed the Army Corps reduced flood releases after local officials pushed back.
The Army Corps did not respond to a question about how the water would reach Los Angeles, about 200 miles away.
“Unscheduled water releases require close coordination with local officials and safety personnel, as well as downstream agricultural water users, in order to reduce flood risks to communities and farms,” wrote Padilla.

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SACRAMENTO, California — Local officials say they narrowly avoided President Donald Trump flooding farms after he declared victory on Friday in his long-running water war with California, claiming he sent billions of gallons south.

“It is 1 point 6 billion gallons today and will be 5 point 2 billion gallons in three days.”. “I only wish they listened to me six years ago — There would have been no fire!” he wrote in a post on his social media platform, adding that everyone should be happy about this hard-won victory.

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In response to Trump’s directive for the federal government to “maximize” water supplies, the Army Corps of Engineers abruptly informed local officials Thursday afternoon that it was going to increase flows from two reservoirs to their maximum capacity.

Local officials rushed to relocate equipment and alert farms to potential flooding before the Corps scaled back its plan, according to Victor Hernandez, who is in charge of water management on the Kaweah River in Tulare County. According to him, on Thursday, the Corps gave him an hour’s notice.

“In my twenty-five years here, I have never received notice so promptly,” Hernandez remarked. “That was frightening and concerning. “.”.

The incident is the most recent development in a ongoing conflict between Trump and state officials that has been intensified by the fires in Los Angeles. The president has used the incident to rekindle long-standing grievances regarding water management that were unrelated to the disaster response.

The releases were linked by an Army Corps spokesperson to Trump’s executive order on Sunday, which instructed all federal agencies to increase water deliveries to combat the fires that began in Los Angeles earlier this month.

As directed by the Executive Order on Emergency Measures to Provide Water Resources in California, the U.S. S. . To guarantee California has water on hand to combat the wildfires, the Army Corps of Engineers is releasing water from Schafer Dam at Success Lake and Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah,” Gene Pawlik said in a statement.

In order to prevent dams from overflowing, it is standard flood control practice to release water from reservoirs prior to a major storm, such as the one that is predicted to hit Northern California this weekend. However, Hernandez claimed that the Army Corps’ plan from Thursday would have released significantly more water than was required. According to him, flooding would have occurred in the Tule and Kaweah rivers, which are home to the Corps’ reservoirs, if the water had been released at the level the Corps had intended.

Hernandez declared, “Channel capacity is very dangerous.”. People are ignorant of the fact that flood damage will occur below due to [channel capacity]. “.”.

Trump has continually pledged to provide more water to farmers in the Central Valley, the state’s conservative heartland, both during his first term and during his presidential campaigns. Although the state’s reservoir levels are currently at or close to historic levels, he mistakenly attributed the brief shortage of water in Los Angeles hydrants during wildfires earlier this month to the state’s water management policies. The hydrants went dry due to the high local demand. Unless California agrees to his demands for more water delivery, he has also threatened to stop providing disaster aid.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that “The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER” following a visit by officials from his Department of Government Efficiency to a federal water pumping station in Northern California on Monday. Officials from California explained on Monday that electrical maintenance was the reason the federal pumps had been unavailable.

But actions like the one in Tulare County could put lives and property in jeopardy, according to a former senior Bureau of Reclamation official. Flood control is mostly the responsibility of the Army Corps, while Reclamation is the main federal agency in charge of water delivery in the West.

Due to the political sensitivity of the matter, the former official, who was given anonymity, stated, “Something really bad could happen because of their nonsensical approach.”. “Floods do occur. Playing around with a software company is not the point here. “.”.

According to Rick Brown, the Army Corps of Engineers’ public affairs officer in Sacramento, the two reservoirs’ water levels reached a point on Thursday where they would normally cause flood control releases.

He directed additional inquiries concerning the choice to optimize water releases to Army Corps headquarters.

Jenny Fromm, the Army Corp’s chief water manager in Sacramento, told Hernandez that the decision originated “somewhere above.”. When asked whether it ordered the releases, the White House did not comment.

Hernandez claimed that after he objected to the decision, Fromm informed him that the Corps would only release the water at a third of its initial planned speed instead of its full potential. After local officials resisted, Aaron Fukuda, the general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, confirmed that the Army Corps had lowered flood releases.

By early Friday morning, firefighters had nearly extinguished the Eaton and Palisades fires. A query concerning how the water would get to Los Angeles, which is roughly 200 miles away, was not answered by the Army Corps. Hernandez said that Tulare Lake, a dry lakebed that last filled up during 2023’s record-breaking rainfall, would receive the water.

According to other water experts, diverting the water to Los Angeles at the Corps’ initial intended release rate would have been practically impossible. When asked if they would activate a state valve that is rarely used to reroute floodwaters from Tulare Lake into the aqueduct that transports water further south into Los Angeles, neither state nor federal representatives replied.

According to Hernandez, he believes that the current releases are still excessive because the reservoir can withstand any impending storm without overflowing.

The town of Porterville, which almost flooded during rainstorms in 2023, is one of the downstream communities at risk of flooding if water from Lake Kaweah and Success Lake is dumped, He said. Additionally, it limits farmers’ access to irrigation water during the driest months of the year. State estimates released Friday show that following a dry January, the snowpack in the Southern Sierra Nevada, which California relies on for summer water supplies, has dropped to 47 percent of average for this time of year.

Hernandez stated, “We have to preserve everything we have because this might be irrigation water up there.”.

He claimed that he and the board members of his water district had urged Congressmen, including Democratic Rep. Republicans in Congress and Jim Costa. Fong and David Valadao. Requests for comment received no response.

Sen. In a letter sent Friday evening, Alex Padilla asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose Defense Department is in charge of the Army Corps, who ordered the releases, how the water would be delivered to Los Angeles, how much notice was given, and what the effects would be on nearby communities.

“To lower flood risks to communities and farms, unscheduled water releases necessitate close coordination with downstream agricultural water users, local officials, and safety personnel,” Padilla wrote. It seems that incredibly little notice was provided, putting downstream residents in grave danger, according to recent reporting and the urgent concerns I have received from my constituents. “”.

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