Fact Checking Trump: California’s Firestorm and Water
@RalphHightower: Trump 1.0 was never good when handling disasters. Trump 2.0 handling of natural disasters will be equally abysmal; he is incapable of learning.
Fact check: Donald Trump’s claims about LA fires and water - CalMatters
by Alastair Bland January 8, 2025
In summary
President-elect Donald Trump faulted California water policies for the devastating wildfires that are burning in Los Angeles County. The fires started because of fierce winds and extremely dry conditions.
Trump’s Divide and Conquer Tactic
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Trump on his social media site, “Truth Social”, Jan 08, 2025, 11:40 AM:</br > “Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way. He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”
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California Governor Gavin Newsom communications director Izzy Gordon: </br >“There is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction. The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”
Trumpian Fallacy
But here’s the kink in Trump’s logic: The Central Valley Project provides no water to Los Angeles. The regional water district receives some water from the State Water Project, which also collects water from the Delta-Bay area and shares some reservoirs and infrastructure with the Central Valley Project. But most of the extra water from Trump’s plan would have been sent to the San Joaquin Valley, and it’s wrong to connect water management further north to the firefighting challenges in Los Angeles.
California’s crazy rain: a stark north-south gap - CalMatters
by Alastair Bland January 8, 2025
In this article, Northern California had an abundance of rain while Southern California is experiencing a severe drought
Fire Fighting Infrastructure
The hydrants systems can handle a structure fire or two. But the system cannot handle multiple neighborhoods, communities, aflame simultaneously.
Three main water tanks near the Palisades, each holding about 1 million gallons, were filled in preparation of the fire because of dangerous weather. The tanks were all depleted by 3 a.m. on Jan. 8, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power CEO and Chief Engineer Janisse Quiñones said during a Jan. 8 press conference. Although water continued to flow to the affected areas, demand for water rose faster than the system could deliver it.
“There’s water in the trunk line, it just cannot get up the hill, because we cannot fill the tanks fast enough,” Quiñones said. “And we cannot lower the amount of water that we provide to the fire department in order to supply the tanks, because we’re balancing firefighting with water.”
Governor Newsom statement on President Trump’s executive actions on climate / Governor of California
Jan 20, 2025
LOS ANGELES – Governor Gavin Newsom today issued the following statement after President Trump took a slew of executive actions aimed at reversing America’s progress on climate, including withdrawing from the Paris Agreement – the international treaty for combating climate change.
If you don’t believe in science, believe your own damn eyes.
Governor Gavin Newsom
Putting People Over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California – The White House
Presidential Actions
Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical
Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern
California
January 20, 2025
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
SUBJECT: Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical
Environmentalism to Provide Water to [Southern
California](https://www.ca.gov/)
I hereby direct the Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the heads of other departments and agencies of the United States as necessary, to immediately restart the work from my first Administration by the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and other agencies to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state for use by the people there who desperately need a reliable water supply.
During my first term, the State of California, at the direction of its Governor, filed a lawsuit to stop my Administration from implementing improvements to California’s water infrastructure. My Administration’s plan would have allowed enormous amounts of water to flow from the snow melt and rainwater in rivers in Northern California to beneficial use in the Central Valley and Southern California. This catastrophic halt was allegedly in protection of the Delta smelt and other species of fish. Today, this enormous water supply flows wastefully into the Pacific Ocean.
The recent deadly and historically destructive wildfires in Southern California underscore why the State of California needs a reliable water supply and sound vegetation management practices in order to provide water desperately needed there, and why this plan must immediately be reimplemented.
Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, the Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of the Interior shall report to me regarding the progress made in implementing the policies in this memorandum and provide any recommendations regarding future implementation.