Trump Asserts Federal Government Power Over California Water

President Donald Trump is asserting more federal government control over water management decisions in California and ordering U.S. officials to override local authorities, casting the steps as necessary to boost the state’s firefighting capabilities.

The actions — enshrined in an executive order that was published Sunday but dated Friday — came as Trump visited California to examine devastation from the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles and after days of withering criticism of the state’s response to the blazes.

The order builds on Trump’s day-one declaration that the US is in the grip of an energy emergency by directing federal officials to expedite exemptions waiving protections under the Endangered Species Act for a complex of dams, reservoirs and other facilities that irrigate farmland across California’s Central Valley and supply water to millions of people.

Trump is also directing meetings of a committee of cabinet-level officials that can green light ventures even when the survival of a species is at stake. The panel, known informally as the “God Squad,” has met only a handful of times over the past four decades.

Imperiled plants and animals listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act have figured prominently in Trump’s criticism of the state’s firefighting efforts. Water allocation plans finalized after years of negotiations by state and federal officials aim to ensure withdrawals still provide sufficient water flows downstream to protect habitat for several species, including the delta smelt, Chinook salmon and steelhead trout.

Trump has zeroed in on the endangered delta smelt, a tiny fish that lives in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary, blaming its protections for dry fire hydrants and sprinkler systems in Los Angeles.

While some fire hydrants ran dry, officials said that resulted from dropping water pressure — not regional water shortages. A key reservoir in the region had been drained for repairs, and storage tanks failed to keep pace with the demand from battling multiple blazes.

Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom, called the premise of Trump’s order false. “California continues to pump as much water as it did under the Trump administration’s policies, and water operations to move water south through the Delta have absolutely nothing to do with the local fire response in Los Angeles,” Gallegos said by email.

Trump cast his moves as common-sense steps to unlock much-needed resources. “I don’t know what’s controversial about sending millions of — sending millions and millions of gallons of beautiful fresh water from the Pacific Northwest and further up than even that into an area that’s bone dry,” he said Friday.

Both farmland and firefighting stand to benefit, Trump said. California farmland is “as good” as Iowa’s, he said, but “it has no water.” “When we let that water come through your valleys and down to Los Angeles,” he said, “it’s going to be a whole different place.”

Environmentalists blasted the effort, calling it a water grab meant to free up more supply for the agriculture sector.

“It’s just idiotic to keep scapegoating endangered salmon and smelt and fixate on gutting the Endangered Species Act when it had nothing to do with the LA wildfires,” said Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Trump’s order asserts broad executive and federal authority over water management decisions in California. The president directed his Interior and Commerce secretaries to immediately “override existing activities that unduly burden efforts” to maximize water deliveries. And he orders the federal Bureau of Reclamation to take every possible step to ensure state agencies don’t interfere with its operation of the Central Valley Water project “to maximize water delivery to high-need communities or otherwise.”

Top photo: A helicopter drops water on the Palisades Fire near the Sullivan Canyon area of Los Angeles, on Jan. 11.

Topics California