This story is so absolutely unbelievable on so many levels. Trump is evidently obsessed with water management issues in California, despite knowing nothing at all about the subject, and seems perfectly fine with ruining the same agricultural interests he pretends to care so much about (and who probably voted for him overwhelmingly at the last election) with his worse than moronic executive orders that threaten to both flood them out immediately and then leave them with insufficient water for the summer.
Ever since the horrendous fires that swept through Southern California earlier this month, Trump has been demanding that “California turn on the water” to supposedly combat them — never mind that reservoirs were still full, and a largely imaginary lack of water had absolutely nothing to do with failing to contain the fires in the face of 80-100 mph Santa Ana winds. Nonetheless, Trump still wanted the photo op of him “turning the water back on” — so this week some spineless engineers with the Army Corps went along with his utterly reckless stunt and opened the floodgates on two of the reservoirs in the southern Sierra foothills, Lake Kaweah and Success Lake to oblige his obsessions. What could possibly go wrong? Picking up the story from Politico:
Local officials had to talk the Army Corps of Engineers down after it abruptly alerted them Thursday afternoon it was about to increase flows from two reservoirs to maximum capacity — a move the agency said was in response to Trump directing the federal government to “maximize” water supplies.
Before the Corps ratcheted down its plan, local authorities scrambled to move equipment and warn farms about possible flooding, said Victor Hernandez, who oversees water management on one of the rivers, the Kaweah in Tulare County. He said the Corps gave him one hour notice on Thursday.
“I’ve been here 25 years, and I’ve never been given notice that quick,” Hernandez said. “That was alarming and scary.”
…
An Army Corps spokesperson tied the releases to Trump’s executive order on Sunday directing all federal agencies to maximize water deliveries in order to respond to the fires that started in Los Angeles earlier this month.
“Consistent with the direction in the Executive Order on Emergency Measures to Provide Water Resources in California, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is releasing water from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Success Lake to ensure California has water available to respond to the wildfires,” Gene Pawlik said in a statement.
Now it’s SOP to release some water from already full reservoirs ahead of expected heavy rains, which seems to be in the forecast for this weekend, to prevent their dams from being overtopped (which would obviously be a very bad thing), — but Hernandez goes on to explain:
the Army Corps’ Thursday plan would have released far more water than needed. He said releasing the water at the capacity the Corps had planned to would have flooded both the Kaweah and Tule rivers, where the Corps’ reservoirs are located.
“Channel capacity is very dangerous,” Hernandez said. “People don’t understand that [with] channel capacity, you’re going to have flood damage down below.”
...
But a former senior Bureau of Reclamation official said moves like the one in Tulare County could endanger property and lives. Reclamation is the primary federal agency with authority over delivering water in the West, while the Army Corps is largely responsible for flood control.
“Something really bad could happen because of their nonsensical approach,” the former official, who was granted anonymity because of the issue’s political sensitivity, said. “Floods are real. This isn’t playing around with a software company.”
Hernandez said he was told by Jenny Fromm, the Army Corp’s chief water manager in Sacramento, that the decision came from “somewhere above.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether it ordered the releases.
Hernandez said that after he resisted the decision, Fromm told him the Corps would release the water at a third of the original planned speed, rather than at maximum capacity. Aaron Fukuda, the general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, also confirmed the Army Corps reduced flood releases after local officials pushed back.
Nor did the Army Corps respond as to how they proposed to actually get the water they were releasing for Trump’s photo op across to the other side of the San Joaquin Valley where it could theoretically enter the California Aqueduct that really does move Northern California water down south. Instead it’s just destined to fill up the usually dry Tulare Lake on the valley floor where it will just evaporate back into the atmosphere come Summer — but at least it’s not draining off into the Pacific Ocean! And speaking of Summer:
Hernandez said he thinks the current releases are still too much because, he said, the reservoir has enough capacity to absorb any coming storm and would not overflow.
Dumping the water from Lake Kaweah and Success Lake poses a flood risk to downstream communities, he said, like the town of Porterville, which nearly flooded during rainstorms in 2023. It also reduces the amount of irrigation water available to farmers during the driest months of the year. The snowpack in the Southern Sierra Nevada that California depends on for water supplies in the summer has dipped to 47 percent of average for this time of year after a dry January, according to state estimates released Friday.
So congratulations, California farmers — you effed around by voting for this team of malevolently incompetent morons, and now you’re destined to find out about the consequences!