Camille von Kaenel and Annie Snider
Fri, January 31, 2025
SACRAMENTO, California — President Donald Trump declared victory on Friday in his long-running water war with California, boasting he sent billions of gallons south — but local officials say they narrowly prevented him from possibly flooding farms.
"Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons. Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory! I only wish they listened to me six years ago — There would have been no fire!" he said in a post on his social media site.
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."
The incident is the latest chapter in an ongoing feud between Trump and state authorities that has been turbo-charged by the Los Angeles fires, which the president has used to reignite long-running complaints about water management that had nothing to do with the response to the disaster.
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.
While releasing water from reservoirs before a big storm, like the one expected to hit Northern California this weekend, is standard flood-control procedure to avoid overflowing dams, Hernandez said 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."
Trump since his first term and during his presidential campaigns has repeatedly vowed to send more water to Central Valley farmers in the state's conservative heartland. He incorrectly blamed the temporary lack of water in Los Angeles hydrants during wildfires earlier this month on the state’s water management policies, though the state’s reservoirs are at or near historic levels right now and the hydrants went dry because of the high local demand. He's also threatened to withhold disaster aid unless California goes along with his moves to deliver more water.
Officials from his Department of Government Efficiency visited a federal water-pumping station in Northern California on Monday, after which Trump posted on Truth Social that "The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER." California officials clarified Monday that the federal pumps had been down due to electrical maintenance.
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."
Rick Brown, the public affairs officer for the Army Corps of Engineers in Sacramento, said Friday the two reservoirs had hit water levels high enough on Thursday to trigger standard flood control releases.
He referred further questions about the decision to maximize water releases to Army Corps headquarters.
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.
Firefighters had almost completely contained the Palisades and Eaton fires as of early Friday. The Army Corps did not respond to a question about how the water would reach Los Angeles, about 200 miles away. Hernandez said the water would go to Tulare Lake, a dry lakebed that last filled up during record-high rainfall in 2023.
Other water experts said it would have been nearly impossible to divert the water to Los Angeles at the speed the Corps originally planned to release it. There is a rarely used state valve that can redirect Tulare Lake floodwaters into the aqueduct that carries water further south into Los Angeles, but neither state nor federal officials responded to a question asking if they would turn it on.
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.
"We need to keep every bit that we have, because this potentially is irrigation water that we have up there," Hernandez said.
He said he and board members at his water district had called on members of Congress to intervene, including Democratic Rep. Jim Costa and Republican Reps. David Valadao and Vince Fong. None responded to requests for comment.
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla sent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose Defense Department oversees the Army Corps, a letter on Friday night asking him who directed the releases, how the water would be transported to Los Angeles, how much notice was given and what the impact would be on local communities.
"Unscheduled water releases require close coordination with local officials and safety personnel, as well as downstream agricultural water users, in order to reduce flood risks to communities and farms," wrote Padilla. "Based on the urgent concerns I have heard from my constituents, as well as recent reporting, it appears that gravely insufficient notification was given, recklessly endangering residents downstream."
Trump administration's order to release water into San Joaquin Valley raises concern
James Ward, Visalia Times-Delta
Updated Sat, February 1, 2025
The Army Corps of Engineers' decision to release water on Friday from Kaweah and Success lakes in the San Joaquin Valley to help California fight wildfires is causing concern and confusion among regional water managers and California elected officials.
The Army Corps of Engineers announced on Jan. 30 that it was releasing large amounts of water from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success in Tulare County, sending water into the San Joaquin Valley.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat, wrote the next day to newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who oversees the Army Corps of Engineers, with questions about the water release.
"Unscheduled water releases require close coordination with local officials and safety personnel, as well as downstream agricultural water users, in order to reduce flood risks to communities and farms," Padilla wrote. "Based on the urgent concerns I have heard from my constituents, as well as recent reporting, it appears that gravely insufficient notification was given, recklessly endangering residents downstream.”
Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno), who represents parts of Tulare County, also wrote to Hegseth on Saturday with concerns.
"An unscheduled release of water at this time of year, when there is little demand for irrigation water and a snowpack that is below average, poses grave threats to a reliable water supply this year," Costa wrote. "This could increase the cost of water for farmers for this crop year exponentially due to dry conditions anticipated."
The offices of Republican congressmen Vince Fong and David Valadao — who both also represent parts of Tulare County — have not responded to questions about the water releases.
Here's what to know about the release of water from Kaweah and Success lakes in the San Joaquin Valley.
The incident is the latest chapter in an ongoing feud between Trump and state authorities that has been turbo-charged by the Los Angeles fires, which the president has used to reignite long-running complaints about water management that had nothing to do with the response to the disaster.
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.
While releasing water from reservoirs before a big storm, like the one expected to hit Northern California this weekend, is standard flood-control procedure to avoid overflowing dams, Hernandez said 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."
Trump since his first term and during his presidential campaigns has repeatedly vowed to send more water to Central Valley farmers in the state's conservative heartland. He incorrectly blamed the temporary lack of water in Los Angeles hydrants during wildfires earlier this month on the state’s water management policies, though the state’s reservoirs are at or near historic levels right now and the hydrants went dry because of the high local demand. He's also threatened to withhold disaster aid unless California goes along with his moves to deliver more water.
Officials from his Department of Government Efficiency visited a federal water-pumping station in Northern California on Monday, after which Trump posted on Truth Social that "The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER." California officials clarified Monday that the federal pumps had been down due to electrical maintenance.
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."
Rick Brown, the public affairs officer for the Army Corps of Engineers in Sacramento, said Friday the two reservoirs had hit water levels high enough on Thursday to trigger standard flood control releases.
He referred further questions about the decision to maximize water releases to Army Corps headquarters.
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.
Firefighters had almost completely contained the Palisades and Eaton fires as of early Friday. The Army Corps did not respond to a question about how the water would reach Los Angeles, about 200 miles away. Hernandez said the water would go to Tulare Lake, a dry lakebed that last filled up during record-high rainfall in 2023.
Other water experts said it would have been nearly impossible to divert the water to Los Angeles at the speed the Corps originally planned to release it. There is a rarely used state valve that can redirect Tulare Lake floodwaters into the aqueduct that carries water further south into Los Angeles, but neither state nor federal officials responded to a question asking if they would turn it on.
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.
"We need to keep every bit that we have, because this potentially is irrigation water that we have up there," Hernandez said.
He said he and board members at his water district had called on members of Congress to intervene, including Democratic Rep. Jim Costa and Republican Reps. David Valadao and Vince Fong. None responded to requests for comment.
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla sent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose Defense Department oversees the Army Corps, a letter on Friday night asking him who directed the releases, how the water would be transported to Los Angeles, how much notice was given and what the impact would be on local communities.
"Unscheduled water releases require close coordination with local officials and safety personnel, as well as downstream agricultural water users, in order to reduce flood risks to communities and farms," wrote Padilla. "Based on the urgent concerns I have heard from my constituents, as well as recent reporting, it appears that gravely insufficient notification was given, recklessly endangering residents downstream."
Trump administration's order to release water into San Joaquin Valley raises concern
James Ward, Visalia Times-Delta
Updated Sat, February 1, 2025
The Army Corps of Engineers' decision to release water on Friday from Kaweah and Success lakes in the San Joaquin Valley to help California fight wildfires is causing concern and confusion among regional water managers and California elected officials.
The Army Corps of Engineers announced on Jan. 30 that it was releasing large amounts of water from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success in Tulare County, sending water into the San Joaquin Valley.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat, wrote the next day to newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who oversees the Army Corps of Engineers, with questions about the water release.
"Unscheduled water releases require close coordination with local officials and safety personnel, as well as downstream agricultural water users, in order to reduce flood risks to communities and farms," Padilla wrote. "Based on the urgent concerns I have heard from my constituents, as well as recent reporting, it appears that gravely insufficient notification was given, recklessly endangering residents downstream.”
Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno), who represents parts of Tulare County, also wrote to Hegseth on Saturday with concerns.
"An unscheduled release of water at this time of year, when there is little demand for irrigation water and a snowpack that is below average, poses grave threats to a reliable water supply this year," Costa wrote. "This could increase the cost of water for farmers for this crop year exponentially due to dry conditions anticipated."
The offices of Republican congressmen Vince Fong and David Valadao — who both also represent parts of Tulare County — have not responded to questions about the water releases.
Here's what to know about the release of water from Kaweah and Success lakes in the San Joaquin Valley.
Why was water released from Kaweah and Success lakes?
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages Kaweah and Success lakes, said the water release was in response to President Trump’s Jan. 24 executive order to obtain more water to fight southern California wildfires.
“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,” wrote Gene Pawlik, a supervising public affairs specialist in the Army Corps’ Washington, D.C. office.
Costa, though, took issue with Trump, saying the link between the Southern California wildfires and Central Valley water policy was false.
"Furthermore, the two rivers by which Terminus Dam and Schafer Dam feed into, the Kaweah River and the Tule River, do not flow into Los Angeles," Costa wrote.
Lake Success was formed when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed and opened Success Dam on the Tule River in Tulare County in 1961. The following year, Lake Kaweah opened after the Terminus Dam was built on the Kaweah River in Tulare County. Both projects help reduce flood damage and conserve water for farmland irrigation.
Tulare County is one of the nation's and state's most productive agricultural regions, with the largest citrus crop in the country. In addition, the county has large grape, pistachio, and almond crops.
Will water from Lake Success and Lake Kaweah help fight wildfires?
San Joaquin Valley water managers told SJV Water, a website that extensively covers Central California water issues, that physical and legal barriers make it virtually impossible to use Tulare County river water for southern California wildfire abatement.
“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.”
Dan Vink, a longtime Tulare County water manager and principal partner at Six-33 Solutions, a water and natural resource firm in Visalia, told SJV Water the decision to release water "was clearly made by someone with no understanding of the system."
“A decision to take summer water from local farmers and dump it out of these reservoirs shows a complete lack of understanding of how the system works and sets a very dangerous precedent,” Vink said.
How much water is being released from Lake Success and Lake Kaweah?
SJV Water is reporting releases from the Tule River at 798 cubic feet per second from 55 cubic feet per second before the increase. Kaweah flows went from 5 cubic feet per second to 1,545 cubic feet per second.
Aaron Fukuda, general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, told SJV Water that's where water flows were expected to stay.
“Normally, these kinds of flood releases are done with a lot of notification and coordination,” Fukuda said. “I’ve been doing this 18 years and have never seen something like this.”
Water managers are capturing flows in recharge basins, Eric Limas, General Manager for the Lower Tule River and Pixley irrigation districts, told SJV Water.
“I have no idea if this is the new norm for operations or not. I certainly hope not.”
SJV Water reported that more water would have been released Friday into the San Joaquin Valley before local irrigation managers raised alarm bells Thursday when they were told releases would reach "channel capacity" for both dams: 5,500 cubic feet per second for Lake Kaweah and 3,500 cubic feet per second for Lake Success.
Water releases of that magnitude were similar to the 2023 floods that caused chaos in the San Joaquin Valley after an unprecedented atmospheric river dumped massive amounts of rainfall in California.
Vink told the Los Angeles Times that a water release that large should be coordinated with farmers to move farm equipment away from riverbanks and other areas that could be flooded. Local public safety officials would also be involved to ensure that any potential homeless encampments near riverbanks were evacuated.
In his letter to Hegseth, Costa wrote the release of that amount of water "could overwhelm and flood downstream communities."
"Unilateral actions like this can seriously harm the work that has been undertaken to increase sustainability and resiliency amidst the worsening effects of climate change," Costa wrote.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta
Farmers Plead ‘Stop Our Fields Flooding’ as Trump Opens Dams
Liam Archacki
Sat, February 1, 2025
Photo Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images
Local officials in California have revealed that President Donald Trump nearly flooded the region’s farms when his administration tried to send an excessive amount of water south, a feat he bragged about on Friday.
“Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons. Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory!” Trump gloated in a Truth Social post.
Over the last month, the president has often pushed for more water to be directed to southern California to help fight the fires that have devastated the area.
Behind the scenes on Friday, though, officials told Politico that they had to talk down the Army Corps of Engineers after they were alerted on short notice about a sudden—and excessive—influx of water.
The Army Corps was set to turn two reservoirs to max capacity, a decision the agency later told Politico was in response to Trump’s directive that the federal government “maximize” water supplies.
Donald Trump followed by First Lady Melania Trump, shakes hands with California Governor Gavin Newsom upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, on January 24, 2025, to visit the region devastated by the Palisades and Eaton fires. / MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
Victor Hernandez, who manages the water on a river in Tulare County, said he scrambled to alert farmers to the possibility of flooding before the Corps backed off. He said he was only given one hour of notice.
“I’ve been here 25 years, and I’ve never been given notice that quick,” Hernandez said. “That was alarming and scary.”
After pushback from multiple officials, including Hernandez, the Army Corps agreed to release the water at one third of the originally planned speed, Hernandez said.
A spokesperson for the Corps, Gene Pawlik, told Politico that the releases were “consistent” with Trump’s executive order to provide water to fight the wildfires in southern California.
A firefighter truck backs up from flames of smoke from the new Hughes Fire at the Lake Hughes Road in Castaic, a northwestern neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on January 22, 2025. / APU GOMES / AFP via Getty Images
Multiple water management experts told Politico that moves like the one initially planned to hit Tulare County could have serious consequences.
“Something really bad could happen because of their nonsensical approach,” said a former official at Bureau of Reclamation, the primary agency responsible for delivering water in the western U.S. “Floods are real. This isn’t playing around with a software company.”
Hernandez was in agreement.
“Channel capacity is very dangerous,” he said. “People don’t understand that [with] channel capacity, you’re going to have flood damage down below.”
Experts told The New York Times that the water released by the Army Corps on Friday has no way of reaching the region affected by the wildfires, which is over 200 miles away, and could have been useful to farmers months from now as irrigation.
As of Saturday, the Palisades and Eaton fires, which raged near Los Angeles, are 100 percent contained, according to Los Angeles Daily News.
Trump has vowed to pump more water. Government data show pumping was down for maintenance
Acting on Trump's order, federal officials opened up two California dams
Ian James, Jessica Garrison
Fri, January 31, 2025
Aerial view of Success Dam, which feeds into the Tule River.
Ian James
Fri, January 31, 2025
The intakes at the C.W. "Bill" Jones Pumping Plant in Tracy, Calif., deliver water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to the aqueducts of the federally managed Central Valley Project. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)
When President Trump visited Los Angeles last week, he pledged to “open up the pumps and valves in the north” and “get that water pouring down here.”
But records show that the day he made that announcement, the federal government’s pumping facility in Northern California was delivering less water than usual, apparently because managers had reduced pumping for several days of routine maintenance.
The records indicate that the day after Trump’s announcement, on Saturday, the federally managed pumping plant resumed regular levels of water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the aqueducts of the Central Valley Project.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s daily pumping data for the Jones Pumping Plant shows that on Jan. 21, the amount of water pumped decreased to about 1,900 acre-feet, down from about 6,900 acre-feet the day before. Pumping continued at reduced levels of about 1,800 acre-feet each day from Jan. 22 through Jan. 24, when Trump visited Los Angeles.
The pumping returned to higher levels on Saturday, Jan. 25, delivering 5,300 acre-feet of water that day, or about 1.7 billion gallons.
On Monday night, Trump said on social media that the U.S. military had “entered” California and “TURNED ON THE WATER,” a claim that state officials promptly denied.
The California Department of Water Resources responded in a statement: “The military did not enter California. The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days.”
Read more: Trump social media claim of using troops to force water flow is refuted by California
Gov. Gavin Newsom responded at a news conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
“There were no military sent to the Central Valley. That was reported but wasn't in evidence,” Newsom said.
He said the federal government was doing maintenance on the Central Valley Project from Jan. 21 to Jan. 24.
“Between the 21st and 24th, the federal government was doing maintenance on their system. It's maintenance that is well coordinated with the State Water Project that does not end pumping,” Newsom said.
For four days, maintenance work on power transmission lines prevented operation of another pumping plant south of the Delta near San Luis Reservoir, which led managers to reduce pumping at the Jones Pumping Plant.
“On the 24th, that maintenance ended, and they started turning back on the pumps,” Newsom said. “It takes a few days to get the pumps back to 100%, and perhaps that was what they were celebrating.”
The Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the Central Valley Project, did not respond to requests for information about the maintenance that temporarily reduced water deliveries.
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The unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, which Trump plans to consult for recommendations on cutting government spending, said in a social media post that it congratulates the administration for “more than doubling the Federally pumped water flowing toward Southern California.”
According to the government data, the Trump administration has not yet increased pumping above the levels that the federal facility was drawing from the Delta under the Biden administration earlier this month. (On Tuesday, the pumping plant delivered nearly 6,900 acre-feet. On Wednesday, that decreased somewhat to about 5,100 acre-feet, and on Thursday, pumping returned to more than 6,800 acre-feet.)
Read more: Trump reenters California’s water wars. It's unclear who will win
Water experts have pointed out that Trump made several inaccurate statements on social media and during his L.A. visit. For example, he said he was opening up the flow of water “from the Pacific Northwest” and “parts of Canada” — from where California has no aqueducts, pipelines or other avenues for water flow.
He also said he intended to increase the flow of water to Los Angeles, even though urban areas of Southern California are supplied not by the federally managed Central Valley Project but by the State Water Project, the other main north-to-south water conduit in the region — which hasn’t been directly affected by his executive orders.
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“I don't think he's interested in water. I think he's interested in other things — for which this is perhaps a rhetorical vehicle,” said Jay Lund, a UC Davis emeritus professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Lund said he thinks one aim of Trump’s statements might be “keeping other people off balance,” including political adversaries in California.
“He likes to occupy space, it seems,” Lund said. “He's not doing things that would actually provide water. He's setting up some rhetorical conditions for perhaps other things he's interested in accomplishing.”
The intake channel at the C.W. "Bill" Jones Pumping Plant in Tracy, Calif., in 2016. (Los Angeles Times)
Trump has clashed with Newsom on California water policy and has repeatedly criticized environmental protections for endangered fish species in the Delta, which place constraints on water deliveries.
Trump issued an order on Sunday directing federal agencies to “maximize” water deliveries in California and “override” state policies if necessary.
Lund noted, however, that the movement of water in California is largely controlled by local and regional agencies. Because of state environmental laws and other factors, he said, the president is generally “not in a strong position to greatly alter how California manages water.”
“You're never quite sure where it's going to lead to. But he does business by menacing a bit,” Lund said. “My impression of this is, a lot of these things are really more signaling rather than substance.”
If Trump eventually increases federal pumping via the federally controlled Central Valley Project, that would primarily benefit the agriculture industry in the San Joaquin Valley, sending more water flowing to farms that produce almonds, pistachios, tomatoes and other crops. The CVP ends in the southern San Joaquin Valley near Bakersfield and does not reach Southern California’s urban areas to the south.
Lund and other experts have pointed out that because state flow requirements to protect endangered fish will remain in place regardless of any federal changes, an increase in pumping by the federal system could, in theory, lead to a decrease in pumping by the State Water Project and less water flowing to urban Southern California.
“He might be arguing about the share of federal versus state pumping, but I don't see much promise in being able to increase the total amount of pumping,” Lund said.
Read more: Trump wants to upend California water policy. State officials say it could do harm
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the wildfires in Southern California underscored why the state should be delivering more water south from the Delta. But California water managers have said L.A. and other cities are not currently short of water, pointing out that the region’s reservoirs are at record-high levels.
State officials have also said that pumping to move water south from the Delta has nothing to do with the local fire response in Los Angeles.
Even with ample supplies in reservoirs, local water systems were pushed to their limits as the fires rapidly spread, driven by strong winds.
When the L.A. water system lost pressure in parts of Pacific Palisades, some fire hydrants ran dry in high-elevation areas, hindering the firefighting effort. Newsom has ordered an investigation into the loss of pressure to hydrants and the lack of water available from a reservoir in Pacific Palisades that was out of commission for repairs.
In his latest executive order, Trump criticized “disastrous” policies and water “mismanagement” by California, and directed federal agencies to scrap a plan that the Biden administration adopted last month, establishing new rules for operating the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project.
Instead, Trump told federal agencies to more or less follow a plan adopted during his first presidency, which California and environmental groups successfully challenged in court.
Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, responded to Trump’s order earlier this week saying the directive has no immediate impact on operations of the State Water Project, which supplies water for 27 million people.
Nemeth said the current rules for the operations of the two water systems in the Delta actually supply Californians with more water than they’d have access to under Trump’s 2020 rules, since the latest plan was written based on new science and with added flexibility to “respond more nimbly to real-time conditions” in rivers and the Delta.
“To abandon these new frameworks would harm California water users and protection of native fish species,” Nemeth said.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Fri, January 31, 2025
The intakes at the C.W. "Bill" Jones Pumping Plant in Tracy, Calif., deliver water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to the aqueducts of the federally managed Central Valley Project. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)
When President Trump visited Los Angeles last week, he pledged to “open up the pumps and valves in the north” and “get that water pouring down here.”
But records show that the day he made that announcement, the federal government’s pumping facility in Northern California was delivering less water than usual, apparently because managers had reduced pumping for several days of routine maintenance.
The records indicate that the day after Trump’s announcement, on Saturday, the federally managed pumping plant resumed regular levels of water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the aqueducts of the Central Valley Project.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s daily pumping data for the Jones Pumping Plant shows that on Jan. 21, the amount of water pumped decreased to about 1,900 acre-feet, down from about 6,900 acre-feet the day before. Pumping continued at reduced levels of about 1,800 acre-feet each day from Jan. 22 through Jan. 24, when Trump visited Los Angeles.
The pumping returned to higher levels on Saturday, Jan. 25, delivering 5,300 acre-feet of water that day, or about 1.7 billion gallons.
On Monday night, Trump said on social media that the U.S. military had “entered” California and “TURNED ON THE WATER,” a claim that state officials promptly denied.
The California Department of Water Resources responded in a statement: “The military did not enter California. The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days.”
Read more: Trump social media claim of using troops to force water flow is refuted by California
Gov. Gavin Newsom responded at a news conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
“There were no military sent to the Central Valley. That was reported but wasn't in evidence,” Newsom said.
He said the federal government was doing maintenance on the Central Valley Project from Jan. 21 to Jan. 24.
“Between the 21st and 24th, the federal government was doing maintenance on their system. It's maintenance that is well coordinated with the State Water Project that does not end pumping,” Newsom said.
For four days, maintenance work on power transmission lines prevented operation of another pumping plant south of the Delta near San Luis Reservoir, which led managers to reduce pumping at the Jones Pumping Plant.
“On the 24th, that maintenance ended, and they started turning back on the pumps,” Newsom said. “It takes a few days to get the pumps back to 100%, and perhaps that was what they were celebrating.”
The Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the Central Valley Project, did not respond to requests for information about the maintenance that temporarily reduced water deliveries.
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The unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, which Trump plans to consult for recommendations on cutting government spending, said in a social media post that it congratulates the administration for “more than doubling the Federally pumped water flowing toward Southern California.”
According to the government data, the Trump administration has not yet increased pumping above the levels that the federal facility was drawing from the Delta under the Biden administration earlier this month. (On Tuesday, the pumping plant delivered nearly 6,900 acre-feet. On Wednesday, that decreased somewhat to about 5,100 acre-feet, and on Thursday, pumping returned to more than 6,800 acre-feet.)
Read more: Trump reenters California’s water wars. It's unclear who will win
Water experts have pointed out that Trump made several inaccurate statements on social media and during his L.A. visit. For example, he said he was opening up the flow of water “from the Pacific Northwest” and “parts of Canada” — from where California has no aqueducts, pipelines or other avenues for water flow.
He also said he intended to increase the flow of water to Los Angeles, even though urban areas of Southern California are supplied not by the federally managed Central Valley Project but by the State Water Project, the other main north-to-south water conduit in the region — which hasn’t been directly affected by his executive orders.
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“I don't think he's interested in water. I think he's interested in other things — for which this is perhaps a rhetorical vehicle,” said Jay Lund, a UC Davis emeritus professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Lund said he thinks one aim of Trump’s statements might be “keeping other people off balance,” including political adversaries in California.
“He likes to occupy space, it seems,” Lund said. “He's not doing things that would actually provide water. He's setting up some rhetorical conditions for perhaps other things he's interested in accomplishing.”
The intake channel at the C.W. "Bill" Jones Pumping Plant in Tracy, Calif., in 2016. (Los Angeles Times)
Trump has clashed with Newsom on California water policy and has repeatedly criticized environmental protections for endangered fish species in the Delta, which place constraints on water deliveries.
Trump issued an order on Sunday directing federal agencies to “maximize” water deliveries in California and “override” state policies if necessary.
Lund noted, however, that the movement of water in California is largely controlled by local and regional agencies. Because of state environmental laws and other factors, he said, the president is generally “not in a strong position to greatly alter how California manages water.”
“You're never quite sure where it's going to lead to. But he does business by menacing a bit,” Lund said. “My impression of this is, a lot of these things are really more signaling rather than substance.”
If Trump eventually increases federal pumping via the federally controlled Central Valley Project, that would primarily benefit the agriculture industry in the San Joaquin Valley, sending more water flowing to farms that produce almonds, pistachios, tomatoes and other crops. The CVP ends in the southern San Joaquin Valley near Bakersfield and does not reach Southern California’s urban areas to the south.
Lund and other experts have pointed out that because state flow requirements to protect endangered fish will remain in place regardless of any federal changes, an increase in pumping by the federal system could, in theory, lead to a decrease in pumping by the State Water Project and less water flowing to urban Southern California.
“He might be arguing about the share of federal versus state pumping, but I don't see much promise in being able to increase the total amount of pumping,” Lund said.
Read more: Trump wants to upend California water policy. State officials say it could do harm
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the wildfires in Southern California underscored why the state should be delivering more water south from the Delta. But California water managers have said L.A. and other cities are not currently short of water, pointing out that the region’s reservoirs are at record-high levels.
State officials have also said that pumping to move water south from the Delta has nothing to do with the local fire response in Los Angeles.
Even with ample supplies in reservoirs, local water systems were pushed to their limits as the fires rapidly spread, driven by strong winds.
When the L.A. water system lost pressure in parts of Pacific Palisades, some fire hydrants ran dry in high-elevation areas, hindering the firefighting effort. Newsom has ordered an investigation into the loss of pressure to hydrants and the lack of water available from a reservoir in Pacific Palisades that was out of commission for repairs.
In his latest executive order, Trump criticized “disastrous” policies and water “mismanagement” by California, and directed federal agencies to scrap a plan that the Biden administration adopted last month, establishing new rules for operating the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project.
Instead, Trump told federal agencies to more or less follow a plan adopted during his first presidency, which California and environmental groups successfully challenged in court.
Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, responded to Trump’s order earlier this week saying the directive has no immediate impact on operations of the State Water Project, which supplies water for 27 million people.
Nemeth said the current rules for the operations of the two water systems in the Delta actually supply Californians with more water than they’d have access to under Trump’s 2020 rules, since the latest plan was written based on new science and with added flexibility to “respond more nimbly to real-time conditions” in rivers and the Delta.
“To abandon these new frameworks would harm California water users and protection of native fish species,” Nemeth said.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Acting on Trump's order, federal officials opened up two California dams
Ian James, Jessica Garrison
Fri, January 31, 2025
Aerial view of Success Dam, which feeds into the Tule River.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has dramatically increased the amount of water flowing from two dams in Tulare County, sending massive flows down river channels toward farmlands in the San Joaquin Valley.
Federal records show that water releases from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success jumped early Friday morning.
The sudden increase occurred four days after President Trump said on social media that the U.S. military had “entered” California and “TURNED ON THE WATER." Trump also vowed during a visit to Los Angeles last week to "open up the valves and pumps" in California to deliver more water.
According to federal data, the flow from Terminus Dam into the Kaweah River near Visalia increased from 57 cubic feet per second to more than 1,500 on Friday morning. The flow from Lake Success near Porterville into the Tule River increased from 105 cubic feet per second to 990.
The Army Corps of Engineers is “conducting controlled water releases” from the two dams, said Tyler Stalker, a spokesperson for the Corps in Sacramento. “The action is being coordinated with local officials. The releases are within the capacity of the downstream waterways.”
Responding to questions about the reasons for the sudden increase in water flow, Gene Pawlik, a spokesperson at the Corps' headquarters in Washington, said in an email that the action was “consistent with the direction" in Trump's recent executive order to enact "emergency measures to provide water resources" in California.
Pawlik said the Army Corps was releasing water from the dams "to ensure California has water available to respond to the wildfires." It was not immediately clear how or where the federal government intends to transport the water.
Read more: Trump reenters California’s water wars. It's unclear who will win
Trump, meanwhile, shared a photo on X of water pouring from a dam, saying: "Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California."
"Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons. Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory!," Trump wrote. "I only wish they listened to me six years ago — There would have been no fire!"
The president has sought to link local water supply problems during the L.A. County firestorms, such as fire hydrants that ran dry, with his calls for changing water management elsewhere in the state. But state officials and water experts have called the comments inaccurate: Regional reservoirs in Southern California are at record-high levels, and more water from Northern California would not have affected the fire response.
Water was released from the dams as the first of two approaching atmospheric river storms brought snow and rain to California.
The Success Dam feeds into the Tule River. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Dam managers in California sometimes release water ahead of major storms to make room in reservoirs for more runoff. But the federal agency's comments about Trump's executive order suggest that this case was different.
State officials were “not part of the decision-making” to release water from the federal reservoirs, said Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources.
“We traditionally have a high degree of coordination at the operational level, which really wasn't a part of this decision,” Nemeth said.
The two reservoirs are used to hold supplies for agricultural irrigation districts. Nemeth noted that winter is not the irrigation season for farms, which require more supplies to grow crops in the summer months, “so there isn't a demand” for the water in the San Joaquin Valley at this time.
The dams are also used to regulate the pace of floodwaters that could otherwise affect downstream areas, Nemeth said. During historic storms in 2023, she said, the state sought to work with local landowners to capture flood flows where possible to replenish groundwater.
“I really can't speak to the decision process at the Corps to make this release at this time,” she said.
It was not clear where federal officials intended to send the water that was being released from the dams.
Local water managers said they were caught off-guard by the federal government's plans on Thursday. Dan Vink, a water consultant who previously served as general manager of the Lower Tule River Irrigation District, called the situation "extremely unprecedented."
Vink said local water officials heard Thursday afternoon that the Army Corps planned to "go from a fairly nominal release to channel capacity in two hours."
A release of that magnitude, he said, would normally be coordinated days in advance, in part because farmers might have expensive farm equipment placed near riverbanks. There are also homeless encampments near some riverbanks, and officials would want to make sure people were out of the way and not in danger before unleashing so much water.
People look at a full pool of water behind Schafer Dam forming Lake Success on the Tule River in the Central Valley during a winter storm in Tulare County east of Porterville, Calif., in March 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images)
The local water managers on Thursday communicated their concerns to the Army Corps officials, who agreed to release less water than originally planned and to delay the releases until Friday, Vink said.
Aaron Fukuda, general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, told the news site SJV Water that normally such flood releases are done with a great deal of prior notification and coordination. "I've been doing this 18 years and have never seen something like this," he said.
Peter Gleick, a water scientist and senior fellow at the Pacific Institute, said dam managers would typically only release large quantities of water in the winter when major storms create a need to make space for large inflows of runoff. But Southern California has been very dry and the snowpack in the southern Sierra remains far below average, so "there is no indication that that's why these releases occurred."
"In addition, when those kinds of releases do occur, they're always done in consultation with local and state agencies," Gleick said.
"I don't know where this water is going, but this is the wrong time of year to be releasing water from these reservoirs. It's vitally important that we fill our reservoirs in the rainy season so water is available for farms and cities later in the summer," Gleick said. "I think it's very strange and it's disturbing that, after decades of careful local, state and federal coordination, some federal agencies are starting to unilaterally manipulate California's water supply."
Vink agreed, saying that given how dry it has been in the region this winter, there was no need to make such a release. In fact, he said, farmers were counting on that water to be available for summer irrigation.
"This is going to hurt farmers," Vink said. "This takes water out of their summer irrigation portfolio."
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla criticized the administration’s decision and demanded answers.
“Unscheduled water releases require close coordination with local officials and safety personnel, as well as downstream agricultural water users, in order to reduce flood risks to communities and farms,” Padilla said in a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “Based on the urgent concerns I have heard from my constituents, as well as recent reporting, it appears that gravely insufficient notification was given, recklessly endangering residents downstream.”
Padilla asked Hegseth several questions, including who made the decision, how much advance notice was given to irrigation districts and local officials, and what impact the releases will have on communities and landowners. He also asked: “If the purpose of these releases is to help fight wildfires in Los Angeles County (which are already almost fully contained), what is the plan to transport this water to Los Angeles rather than let the water simply be discharged into Tulare Lake where it will evaporate?”
Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom took other actions to adjust how the state is managing water. With two storms approaching on Friday, Newsom signed an executive order that aims to divert and store more storm runoff.
The order directs the Department of Water Resources and other state agencies to maximize the storage and capture of water from rivers to recharge groundwater and boost reservoirs such as San Luis Reservoir, located south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
"It is more important than ever that we maximize every opportunity to recharge our groundwater supplies," Newsom said.
“We are also preparing to use every last drop to boost our water supply for communities and farms throughout the state,” Newsom said. “By storing these stormwaters, we are creating a literal rainy day fund to help us recover from a multiyear drought and prepare for our hotter, drier future.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has dramatically increased the amount of water flowing from two dams in Tulare County, sending massive flows down river channels toward farmlands in the San Joaquin Valley.
Federal records show that water releases from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success jumped early Friday morning.
The sudden increase occurred four days after President Trump said on social media that the U.S. military had “entered” California and “TURNED ON THE WATER." Trump also vowed during a visit to Los Angeles last week to "open up the valves and pumps" in California to deliver more water.
According to federal data, the flow from Terminus Dam into the Kaweah River near Visalia increased from 57 cubic feet per second to more than 1,500 on Friday morning. The flow from Lake Success near Porterville into the Tule River increased from 105 cubic feet per second to 990.
The Army Corps of Engineers is “conducting controlled water releases” from the two dams, said Tyler Stalker, a spokesperson for the Corps in Sacramento. “The action is being coordinated with local officials. The releases are within the capacity of the downstream waterways.”
Responding to questions about the reasons for the sudden increase in water flow, Gene Pawlik, a spokesperson at the Corps' headquarters in Washington, said in an email that the action was “consistent with the direction" in Trump's recent executive order to enact "emergency measures to provide water resources" in California.
Pawlik said the Army Corps was releasing water from the dams "to ensure California has water available to respond to the wildfires." It was not immediately clear how or where the federal government intends to transport the water.
Read more: Trump reenters California’s water wars. It's unclear who will win
Trump, meanwhile, shared a photo on X of water pouring from a dam, saying: "Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California."
"Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons. Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory!," Trump wrote. "I only wish they listened to me six years ago — There would have been no fire!"
The president has sought to link local water supply problems during the L.A. County firestorms, such as fire hydrants that ran dry, with his calls for changing water management elsewhere in the state. But state officials and water experts have called the comments inaccurate: Regional reservoirs in Southern California are at record-high levels, and more water from Northern California would not have affected the fire response.
Water was released from the dams as the first of two approaching atmospheric river storms brought snow and rain to California.
The Success Dam feeds into the Tule River. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Dam managers in California sometimes release water ahead of major storms to make room in reservoirs for more runoff. But the federal agency's comments about Trump's executive order suggest that this case was different.
State officials were “not part of the decision-making” to release water from the federal reservoirs, said Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources.
“We traditionally have a high degree of coordination at the operational level, which really wasn't a part of this decision,” Nemeth said.
The two reservoirs are used to hold supplies for agricultural irrigation districts. Nemeth noted that winter is not the irrigation season for farms, which require more supplies to grow crops in the summer months, “so there isn't a demand” for the water in the San Joaquin Valley at this time.
The dams are also used to regulate the pace of floodwaters that could otherwise affect downstream areas, Nemeth said. During historic storms in 2023, she said, the state sought to work with local landowners to capture flood flows where possible to replenish groundwater.
“I really can't speak to the decision process at the Corps to make this release at this time,” she said.
It was not clear where federal officials intended to send the water that was being released from the dams.
Local water managers said they were caught off-guard by the federal government's plans on Thursday. Dan Vink, a water consultant who previously served as general manager of the Lower Tule River Irrigation District, called the situation "extremely unprecedented."
Vink said local water officials heard Thursday afternoon that the Army Corps planned to "go from a fairly nominal release to channel capacity in two hours."
A release of that magnitude, he said, would normally be coordinated days in advance, in part because farmers might have expensive farm equipment placed near riverbanks. There are also homeless encampments near some riverbanks, and officials would want to make sure people were out of the way and not in danger before unleashing so much water.
People look at a full pool of water behind Schafer Dam forming Lake Success on the Tule River in the Central Valley during a winter storm in Tulare County east of Porterville, Calif., in March 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images)
The local water managers on Thursday communicated their concerns to the Army Corps officials, who agreed to release less water than originally planned and to delay the releases until Friday, Vink said.
Aaron Fukuda, general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, told the news site SJV Water that normally such flood releases are done with a great deal of prior notification and coordination. "I've been doing this 18 years and have never seen something like this," he said.
Peter Gleick, a water scientist and senior fellow at the Pacific Institute, said dam managers would typically only release large quantities of water in the winter when major storms create a need to make space for large inflows of runoff. But Southern California has been very dry and the snowpack in the southern Sierra remains far below average, so "there is no indication that that's why these releases occurred."
"In addition, when those kinds of releases do occur, they're always done in consultation with local and state agencies," Gleick said.
"I don't know where this water is going, but this is the wrong time of year to be releasing water from these reservoirs. It's vitally important that we fill our reservoirs in the rainy season so water is available for farms and cities later in the summer," Gleick said. "I think it's very strange and it's disturbing that, after decades of careful local, state and federal coordination, some federal agencies are starting to unilaterally manipulate California's water supply."
Vink agreed, saying that given how dry it has been in the region this winter, there was no need to make such a release. In fact, he said, farmers were counting on that water to be available for summer irrigation.
"This is going to hurt farmers," Vink said. "This takes water out of their summer irrigation portfolio."
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla criticized the administration’s decision and demanded answers.
“Unscheduled water releases require close coordination with local officials and safety personnel, as well as downstream agricultural water users, in order to reduce flood risks to communities and farms,” Padilla said in a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “Based on the urgent concerns I have heard from my constituents, as well as recent reporting, it appears that gravely insufficient notification was given, recklessly endangering residents downstream.”
Padilla asked Hegseth several questions, including who made the decision, how much advance notice was given to irrigation districts and local officials, and what impact the releases will have on communities and landowners. He also asked: “If the purpose of these releases is to help fight wildfires in Los Angeles County (which are already almost fully contained), what is the plan to transport this water to Los Angeles rather than let the water simply be discharged into Tulare Lake where it will evaporate?”
Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom took other actions to adjust how the state is managing water. With two storms approaching on Friday, Newsom signed an executive order that aims to divert and store more storm runoff.
The order directs the Department of Water Resources and other state agencies to maximize the storage and capture of water from rivers to recharge groundwater and boost reservoirs such as San Luis Reservoir, located south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
"It is more important than ever that we maximize every opportunity to recharge our groundwater supplies," Newsom said.
“We are also preparing to use every last drop to boost our water supply for communities and farms throughout the state,” Newsom said. “By storing these stormwaters, we are creating a literal rainy day fund to help us recover from a multiyear drought and prepare for our hotter, drier future.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
