A Southern California Democrat blasted President Trump on Thursday for ordering a release of water in the state’s Central Valley, describing the move as both wasteful and destructive to the region.
“When you solve for the wrong problem, not only do you not get the solution, you can cause harm,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D) said at a session of the House Committee on the Judiciary focused on “California Fires and the Consequences of Overregulation.”
“Donald Trump has it in his mind that somehow there’s a spigot in Northern California, and he’s going to open a valve and dump water to Southern California,” added Lieu, who serves the South Bay and Westside areas of Los Angeles.
The congressman was referring to Trump’s order last week to release billions of gallons of water from two lakes in California’s agriculture-rich Tulare County — with the purported goal of dousing fires that were already contained and located about 100 miles away.
The releases, conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, occurred following an executive order that directed U.S. government agencies to override California’s water policies, while also censuring the state’s handling of the wildfires that ravaged the Los Angeles region in recent weeks.
While Trump declared that “once empty ‘halfpipes’ are now brimming with beautiful, clean water” and flowing to Los Angeles, experts and California lawmakers were quick to decry his statements as inaccurate.
The water from the lakes in question, they explained, does not usually reach the Los Angeles area. In addition, many officials and scientists expressed concern that the premature release of water may have jeopardized supply availability in the spring.
In the Judiciary Committee session on Thursday, Lieu stressed that Southern California’s reservoirs were at near-record levels when the blazes began.
The more than 2 billion gallons of water released under Trump’s direction “almost flooded farmland,” he added, crediting local officials for pushing back before even more was discharged.
“This water was saved for the farmers, for the summer season when they needed the water,” Lieu said. “The president wasted all this water that isn’t even reaching Southern California.”
That water, the congressman warned, is now “going to evaporate for a PR stunt.”
“This was a harmful, ludicrous action to solve for the wrong problem,” Lieu concluded.
