President Trump repeatedly blamed Gapin New Island Governor and other California leaders for the fire that devastated Los Angeles. The president accused the Democrats who insisted on sending enough water to southern California for the suppression of the fire, saying that it was because of their desire to protect the triangular smelt, a threatening fish species.
But as President Trump prepared for a visit to California on Friday, California’s water experts said they had a wrong or complicated water mechanics in his explanation. Southern California reservoirs were generally full of water at the beginning of the year, and there were other causes of problems in the fire suppression process, they said.
President Trump’s view of the situation can have very practical results. He threatened to withhold federal relief funds if California Lord did not send more water from the northern part of the state to the south. He also issued an administrative order entitled “Puting a People on the Fish,” on the first day of his inauguration, which instructed members to find a way to relocate more water to the south within 90 days.
This command is as old as California’s lawsuit and disputes as well as those who are eligible to receive valuable water in California and the liquid gold in California, along with agriculture, fishing and ecosystems, with about 40 million inhabitants. I put it on the front.
The southern ends of Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Mountains, along the spine in California, are essential for the supply of water. Due to the same storms that make Yosemite National Park a winter Wonderland and make a ski play near Taho Lake, snowballs are melting in spring and summer, turning into rivers and rivers.
Most of the Lord’s water begins and stored in northern California, but most of the Lord’s population lives in southern California. And the agricultural agricultural industry is located in Central Valley, which is not enough to maintain crops every year.
In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hanni, President Trump said, “Gavin has one thing he can do.” “He can solve the water from the north. The tremendous amount of water, rain, and the water in the mountains come with snow and melts down, and there are so many water and release to the Pacific Ocean. ”
But experts say that the state’s supply of water to southern California has become intense enough to be controlled on January 7 and has nothing to do with a fire that destroyed more than 10,000 structures.
“There are a lot of things that can be said to make California bad, but if you actually do so, this is not one of them,” said Jay Lund, an honorary professor at the University of California. Resources and environmental engineering.
Complex water hub
When President Trump and other Republicans criticize California’s sending water to the Pacific, they mention the agreement that guarantees enough freshwater to send sufficient freshwater to protect the important ecosystem. Some of the water ultimately flow into the sea.
All of this reaches the peak in the Sacramento-San Joakin delta in the northern California, where the seawater of San Francisco and the fresh water of the river are mixed. The triangle is the largest estuary on the west coast, and is very sensitive to environmentally and politically.
Through the delta, the state and federal governments provide tap water to two -thirds of the state’s population and irrigation water to millions of acres. Maze consisting of embankments, pumps and islands control the balance of seawater and freshwater. The question of how many water to spread through the delta was the source of water debate in the vulnerable state for decades, and the most political goal in the fight was the triangle smelt, one of the smallest inhabitants.
After the fire began, President Trump called the fish that Prime Minister New Som wanted to protect it as “essentially useless fish.”
The smelt was once abundant in the delta and played an important role in the ecosystem by providing many species of fish and birds. Experts say that the fish, now endangered, offer different advantages to the ecosystem, experts say. It helps to protect other indigenous fish that need a certain amount of freshwater from the estuary.
Peter Moyle, an honorary professor at the University of California, Davis Campus, said, “There are various kinds of fish that require protection and management.” “If we don’t consider them, the fish will disappear one by one at a time.”
For decades, however, smelt has become a symbol of competitive demand for irrigation water supply to many farmers in Central Valley.
This is not the first time the Trump administration aimed at the triangular smelt, a shabby fish that exists only in California. In 2019, the protection of fish was weakened, which was a prediction of farmers’ victory.
“If Trump finds a way to send more water to the south somehow, his actions will cause a big problem in the agriculture of the triangle and the northern region,” Dr. Moyle said.
According to Jon Rosenfield, the scientific manager of San Francisco Baykeeper, an advocate, the smelt in question is seven threats in a triangle that has been damaged by the deterioration of habitats due to too many directions of water. Or one of the endangered fish. This includes two types of chinuk salmon, steel head trout, green iron armor shark. Other Chinuk has been so bad in recent years, so the salmon fishing has to be closed in the last two years.
“Donald Trump or his allies will never hear about talking about endangered chinuk salmon or closed salmon fishing. “You will never hear what he talks about green iron,” Dr. Rosenfield said. “Why? Because people know what salmon and sturgeon are.”
According to the analysis that helped him, even under the limited regulations enforced by 2019, the specifications related to the triangular smelting were not an average of 1.2%of the additional water flowing into San Francisco alone.
Infrastructure problem of Pacific Palisades
Some firefighters at Pacific Palisades are well recorded in the night when a fire broke out and the water was lacking, and the hose dried up while attempting to turn off the fire. The water pressure dropped and the fire hydrant could not catch up with the demands of the community to digest each house.
At the same time, a reservoir that can supply millions of gallons to Pacific Palisades has been empty for repair.
Trump used these cases to support his claim that California could not supply enough water to southern California. But either problem was the result of water moving north.
Many experts say that, like many American communities, the city’s capital system of Pacific Palisades has never been built to withstand fire in preparation for forest fires carrying thousands of homes. The storage tanks and pumping systems designed to provide services to the hills near the hill could not follow the speed of that night.
The reservoirs around Los Angeles were high at the end of December, Dr. Lund said. He pointed out that the biggest problem is that airplanes and helicopters that control forest fires were not grounded by fierce winds.
“In the southern California, there was enough water enough to be able to fall into the water damage area of 20 feet depths, but I could not hold water to that place,” he said.
The main reservoir, which stores the water used by the residents of Southern California, maintains more than 100% of its normal levels this year.
New Som said on Thursday, “The main reservoir has reached the highest record or near it, and the problem related to endangered species has been litigation, ruling, and politicized while I am alive.” President Trump’s visit. “They are not new to the current government. They go back to George HW Bush. ”
Northwest of the Pacific?
Recently, President Trump mentioned a water pipe that does not exist.
He said at a press conference on Tuesday that “Los Angeles can use a huge amount of water.” “The only thing they need to do is run the valve. It is a valve from the northwestern part of the Pacific. Here, millions of gallons of water per day, even in many cases, pour into California. From California to Los Angeles. And they turned it off. ”
Trump also said that Californian leaders are turning the water into the Pacific through the valve.
However, there is no valve that regulates the amount of water pouring in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The idea of building a pipeline in Oregon and Washington was previously proposed by the Californian residents, but it has been considered a huge cost to build a system that can carry water across such a distance and towering mountains. .
And if Washington and Oregon officials agree to send water south, they will face political problems. However, the state exports one of the by -products of water to California in the form of hydropower through large -scale transmission lines.
John Buse, a legal advisory committee of the Center for Biological Diversity, said, “It’s hard to explain what he’s talking about because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” “The idea that water flows with only a valve.”
Send water South to benefit farmers.
For decades, farmers have fought to secure more water through delta, and are most likely to benefit the most due to the movement to move water to the south.
President Trump supported firefighters from Pacific Palisades this month and focused on discussions on supplying water to southern California residents, but historically, farms used several times more water than the state residents.
The president has explained his experience of visiting the Central Valley Farm in the past with former California Republican Republican Republican Congressman Devin Nunes and other Republicans. He made it clear that he wanted to supply more water to California farms.
Trump told Hanni on Wednesday, “It seemed as if it was burning when I saw this vast land.” “It was dark and dry. And there will be a small patch. Small and small green patches, beautiful green.
“And I want to say, ‘Why is there such a small patch all over this land?’ They said, ‘It is only that you can farm because there is no water.’ I said, ‘Are you going through drought?’ ‘no. They locked the water. They locked the taps from the north to protect the delta smelt. ”
Mike Wade is the managing director of the California Farm Water Coalition. The coalition advocates more water for farmers concentrated in the Central Valley. He says the president’s Pacific Northwest valve remarks may only be a parable of Delta’s water supply management, and the group has worked well with both the Biden and the Trump administration.
Wade told farmers that more water is needed.
“If you look at the last 25 years, the farmland that has been interrupted by production is mainly due to lack of water supply,” he said. “We can farm more than now with land and water.”
Adam I wrote a report in Los Angeles.
