March 7, 2025 ☼ trump ☼ california ☼ disaster ☼ water
Source: The Washington Post (Link)
The agency carried out Trump’s directive, which came in the wake of catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles County, on short notice** on Jan. 30, though it would normally require days to coordinate. A memo written four days after the release, obtained by The Post through a public records request, shows how federal officials rushed **ahead with the plan to release irrigation water despite objections from the state’s elected officials and some local farmers.
Col. Chad W. Caldwell, commander of the Army Corps’ Sacramento district, wrote that the water that poured out of Lake Kaweah and Success Lake “could not be delivered to Southern California directly.” To do so would have required several steps of coordination with state and federal agencies to transport the water to** **a rarely used connection point, and it quickly became clear that was impossible in such little time, according to the memo.
The release was done to satisfy Trump’s executive order, Caldwell wrote. And the colonel had also been asked to send photos of the water to Washington, according to an official familiar with the request who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Trump posted a photo of water flowing from Lake Kaweah on X the next day.
The water release was a pure publicity stunt that will cost farmers and ultimately consumers. Stupidity at its finest.