E-Paper
Trump criticised for dumping gallons of water from 2 California dams farmers relied on, ‘Every drop belongs to someone’
Donald Trump has ordered the release of massive amounts of water from two California dams, leaving local farmers struggling to preserve freshwater resources.
Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the release of massive amounts of water from two California dams, leaving local farmers struggling to preserve freshwater resources required for dry summer months. The US Army Corps of Engineers acted on the president’s orders and released water from the Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and the Schafer Dam at Lake Success, The Los Angeles Times reported. Both the dams are located in Tulare County in the San Joaquin Valley.
The flow from the Terminus Dam was initially at 57 cubic feet per second (cfs), but it is now flowing at over 1,500 cfs. The flow from Lake Success went to 990 cfs from 105 cfs as of Friday morning, January 31, as reported by AlterNet.
Trump shared a photo of the water on X, writing in the caption, “Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California. Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons. Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory! I only wish they listened to me six years ago – There would have been no fire!”
US Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson Gene Pawlik claimed that the step was taken "to ensure California has water available to respond to the wildfires." He also said that the release of water from the dams was "consistent with the direction" of Trump's January 24 executive order, where the president announced "emergency measures to provide water resources in California."
‘This decision was clearly made by someone with no understanding of the system’
Water managers in Tulare County, however, told Bakersfield, California-based news site SJV Water, that various physical and legal barriers prevent the valley's water from getting to Southern California. According to SJV Water, the water would have to be "pumped at great expense" across the valley to the California Aqueduct, after which it will still have to travel hundreds of miles to finally make it to Los Angeles.
“Every drop belongs to someone,” Kaweah River Watermaster Victor Hernandez said. “The reservoir may belong to the federal government, but the water is ours. If someone’s playing political games with this water, it’s wrong.”
Irrigation will now become difficult after this move, said Tulare County water manager Dan Vink. "A decision to take summer water from local farmers and dump it out of these reservoirs shows a complete lack of understanding of how the system works and sets a very dangerous precedent," Vink said. "This decision was clearly made by someone with no understanding of the system or the impacts that come from knee-jerk political actions."
Climate scientist Peter Gleick said on Bluesky that water resources farmers had been "relying on" were "thrown away" by the Trump administration for the sale of "a photo op & a bragging media post." "This water will not be captured, will not be useful for cities or farms or firefighting," Gleick said. "It is now lost."
