2.2 billion gallons of water flowed out of California reservoirs because of Trump’s order to open dams
By: Ella Nilsen, CNN
Trump is incompetent. He is a showman spending his time dreaming up ways to make him look like a superhero. Narcissist in chief.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The US Army Corps of Engineers opened two dams on Friday in Central California and let roughly 2.2 billion gallons of water flow out of reservoirs, after President Donald Trump ordered the release with the misguided intent to send water to fire-ravaged Southern California .
Trump celebrated the move in posts to Truth Social post on Friday and Sunday, declaring, “the water is flowing in California,” and adding the water was “heading to farmers throughout the State, and to Los Angeles.”
There are two major problems, water experts said: The newly released water will not flow to Los Angeles, and it is being wasted by being released during the wet winter season.
“They were holding extra water in those reservoirs because of the risk that it would be a dry summer,” said Heather Cooley, director of research for California water policy organization the Pacific Institute. “This puts agriculture at risk of insufficient water during the summer months.”
On Friday, Trump posted that 1.6 billion gallons was being released adding that “in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons.”
About 2.2 billion gallons were released from Friday to Sunday, local water districts said in a statement released Monday. That water was discharged into the dry lakebed of Tulare Lake, according to a letter from Sen. Alex Padilla to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
“Downstream entities used these releases for limited irrigation demand and groundwater recharge,” the statement said.
“This release is extremely concerning,” Cooley said. “It’s providing zero benefit and putting California farmers at risk of water supply constraints in the coming months.”
California Department of Water Resources director Karla Nemeth told reporters that there was little coordination between federal officials and the state and local water managers for the Army Corps releases at the Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success.
“These reservoirs were federal reservoirs, and the state of California was not part of the decision making in this instance,” Nemeth said. “We traditionally have a high degree of coordination at the operational level, which really wasn’t a part of this decision.”
California’s State Water project supplies water from Northern California to Southern California, including to Los Angeles. Los Angeles’ water supply comes partly from state reservoirs and partly from the Colorado River.
But Los Angeles’ water sources are completely separated from the water system that Lake Kaweah and Lake Success supply. That water system flows into the agriculture-heavy Central Valley — where large farms grow nuts, citrus and grasses for animal feed, among other crops. The water-stressed region is heavily reliant on groundwater and winter precipitation stored in state reservoirs to irrigate crops.
The US Army Corps of Engineers and the White House did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
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Loose-cannon armed with the power of the presidency.
Water management in California is an extremely old and complicated issue. As someone who has lived in California all his life, it really pisses me off when people who don’t live here and are just interested in scoring political points act like they know better than we do about how to deal with our water issues. Even worse, Trump and his crew just make shit up, and his worshippers accept it all without question.
I've also lived in California all of my life. What we know for a fact is Trump just made our water problems worse, probably on purpose. Can you imagine that he is wasting billions of gallons of water? What a disgrace.
And his supporters think he saved California.
This cultish behavior is like a political pandemic.
Trump was bragging yesterday that he solved all of California's water issues
Yes, amazing that Trump is actually lying about something. Taking credit for something he absolutely did not accomplish.
Imagine that!
I think Trump believes this is a four year Trump reality show.
He made our water problems worse.
Having lived in Cali the best part of my life I cannot understand this move by Trump. Any one that has lived in Cali for a year knows that this was a complete waste of water.
For Trump it’s chance to crow to his dumb ass followers that he is ‘’The Man’’…whereas he might be the man but a garden hose, buckets and rake for the forest is level of expensive.
I cannot make the MAGA understand how incredibly stupid this move was.
Trump does not care about truth, all he wants is something new to brag about. It does not matter that he did absolutely nothing to address the problem and ended up wasting water instead. His supporters clearly buy every bullshit line he spews and that is all he cares about.
To wit, if his ratings are good, he is happy. This is the Trump reality show and it is all about him.
But it is ok, he will be back to blaming the DEI hires and Trans individuals as soon as they start needing water in the summer. All the magats will have completely forgotten.
He literally endangered property and lives by going around the people who monitor this stuff.
Additionally, MAGA has no clue how carefully water is controlled in this state - no, not for a fish - for agriculture, drinking water, flood control, and conservation.
Should read level ‘’of expertise’’ not expensive.