Trump’s ordered water ‘solution’ to fight California‘s fires comes up dry, officials charge
Trump’s ordered water ‘solution’ to fight California‘s fires comes up dry, officials charge
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Trump claims California water comes from the Pacific Northwest. In reality most of the state’s water comes from the melting snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains in eastern California. A Trump administration executive order framed as a way to help Southern California fight future wildfires won’t get more water in the hands of local firefighters, and will mostly simply divert water to farms, according to experts and advocates in the state.
![[Trump has promised to back California ‘100 percent’ in its wildfire recovery]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/25/02/SEI237233188.jpg)
Experts on California’s byzantine water infrastructure said the Trump order has little to do with improving the response to future wildfires like those that have torn through the Los Angeles area in recent weeks. “Attempts to connect water management in Northern California to local wildfire fighting in Los Angeles have zero factual basis. California continues to pump as much water as it did under the [previous] 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.”.
Even though fire hydrants ran dry and a local aquifer sat empty as LA firefighters fought blazes like the Palisades Fire, experts say that insufficient infrastructure is to blame, rather than a lack of local water supply. Some praised the Trump order, including the Westlands Water District, which serves agricultural communities in Fresno and Kings Counties.
