Trump may or may not believe there’s an actual gigantic valve up on the Canadian border than can be turned to flow unlimited water into the U.S. Or that such a valve exists in northern California. He’s never been all that smart and it’s clear he’s devolved from ‘only’ being an idiot who didn’t know nearly as much as he’s thought. Still, it doesn’t take a genius or any particular smarts or common sense to know there are large reservoirs. Or look at a map and see WHERE said bodies of water are located, AND that there is (or was when the wildfires were at their worst) getting it many hundreds of miles down to southern California to fight the fires. What Trump does know is how to play people including journalists for suckers. He makes certain things sound so simple, yet instead of calling some things (like some giant valve Canada could just ‘turn on’) out as STUPID and RIDICULOUS in headlines and the opening of articles journalists cringe.
In this case as this article from Alternet tells us Trump is crowing about having ‘provided’ over five BILLIONS of gallons of water to southern California. And lamenting that it hadn’t been done by Biden. Sure, he can order the Army Corps of Engineers to increase the water flow from two dams and claim “Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory!” he tweeted. “I only wish they listened to me six years ago – There would have been no fire!” but it’s bullshit. Alas, the news about all this is just as Trump knew it would be – that billions of gallons of water have been released:
The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — acting on Trump’s orders — released water from the Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and the Schafer Dam at Lake Success, which are both in Tulare County in the San Joaquin Valley. Whereas water was originally flowing from the Terminus Dam at 57 cubic feet per second (cfs), it’s now reportedly flowing at more than 1,500 cfs. The flow from Lake Success went from 105 cfas to 990 cfs as of Friday morning.
In a post to his official X account, Trump tweeted a “photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California,” writing: “Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons.” He suggested that the water release would help officials in the Golden State fight wildfires in Southern California.
Trump knows that because of how “news” stories are crafted that the lede will be he’s ordered five billions of gallons of water to, as he says help fight wildfires in southern California. Sure, many articles will go on to explain why this is nothing but a bullshit publicity stunt but that part will be buried. All the details about how that water won’t get within hundreds of miles of southern California will be buried if talked about at all. The linked article does actually explain this:
However, water managers in Tulare County told Bakersfield, California-based news site SJV Water — which covers water issues in the San Joaquin Valley – that there are multiple physical and legal barriers that prevent the valley’s water from getting to Southern California. SJV Water reported that the water would have to be “pumped at great expense” across the valley to the California Aqueduct, where it would still need to travel hundreds of miles to make it to the Los Angeles area.
“Every drop belongs to someone,” Kaweah River Watermaster Victor Hernandez told SJV Water. “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.”
The plain fact is for all the good this stunt appears to have done Trump might just as well have flushed every gallon down his fake gold toilet. THAT is how major news outlets should have framed any reporting on this. Five BILLION gallons of water in a state that’s suffered year after year of severe drought and is only starting to recover (groundwater levels are still dangerously low I should add) just had a massive amount wasted. That’s not the worst part however.
FARMERS were counting on that water come summer. Even without the tariffs that will affect food prices (we get a lot more food from the countries they’re being levied on than people realize) without adequate water crop production would be impacted. As the second blocked quote notes at the end the federal government may own the dams/reservoirs but NOT the water in them. It’s been allocated by people who know water management. People who have tons of knowledge and experience and know what the hell they are doing. Instead we have Trump leading a cowed media around by a nose-ring. But the reality is put very simply and well by a climate scientist on Bluesky:
Climate scientist Peter Gleick — who specializes in water issues — lamented on Bluesky that water resources farmers had been “relying on” was effectively “thrown away” by the Trump administration all 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 wrote. “It is now lost.”
Five BILLION (plus) gallons. That’s an awful lot of water that won’t be available to grow crops this summer. Unfortunately we don’t have a news business that will educate the public – starting with headlines and opening paragraphs about Trump stunts that call them exactly what they are – DUMBASS POLITICAL STUNTS. It’s up to smaller outlets and blogs like this to spread the TRUTH to the masses. We sure as hell won’t see stuff about it on Xsitter or FB/Meta.
********** And now, a message from Ursula I hope you take to heart **********
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