WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has signed an executive order seeking to circumvent federal and state laws dealing with California's water system in an effort to provide the southern part of the state with necessary water resources to fight wildfires.
Almost immediately after the onset of the recent spate of wildfires in Los Angeles, "firefighters were unable to fight the blaze due to dry hydrants, empty reservoirs, and inadequate water infrastructure," the executive order said.
Trump's order said the wildfire disaster has affected the entire country and it's in the nation's "interest to ensure that California has what it needs to prevent and fight these fires and others in the future."
"Therefore, it is the policy of the United States to provide Southern California with necessary water resources, notwithstanding actively harmful State or local policies," the order said.
The order calls for "overriding disastrous California policies" and directs the heads of the departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Commerce, Interior and Agriculture to take measures to ensure Southern California has adequate water resources.
It also specifically calls on the interior and commerce secretaries to immediately take action "to override existing activities that unduly burden efforts to maximize water deliveries."
The order calls for the Trump administration to take over the federal Central Valley Project in California, which is operated by the Bureau of Reclamation. The water system "reduces flood risk for the Central Valley, and supplies valley domestic and industrial water. It also supplies water to major urban centers in the Greater Sacramento and San Francisco Bay areas" and "provides water to restore and protect fish and wildlife, and to enhance water quality," according to the bureau.
The presidential action also threatens to cut off federal funding to the state, saying that it wants the Trump administration to end "the subsidization of California's mismanagement." The order instructs the director of the Office of Management and Budget to review all funding for programs related to California's land and water management and disaster response.
When asked for comment Monday, Newsom's office said the executive order's premise is "false."
"Attempts to connect water management in Northern California to local wildfire fighting in Los Angeles have zero factual basis," said his deputy director of communications, Tara Gallegos. "California continues to pump as much water as it did under the 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."
Ahead of Trump's visit to California on Friday, Newsom said Trump's criticisms of the state's handling of its water amounted to misinformation.
"Maybe the president doesn’t know that there’s not a spigot that can be turned that can solve all the water problems that he alleges exist, that don’t exist when it comes to the state water project here in California," he said.
Trump repeated threats during his trip to Los Angeles to withhold federal aid to California over efforts to protect endangered fish called the delta smelt, suggesting that water was being prioritized for them — and issue that Newsom has said is unconnected to firefighting efforts.
The top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee in Congress, Rep. Jared Huffman, of California, criticized Trump's executive order, saying in a statement, "With the stroke of a pen, Trump has chosen to undermine critically important safeguards and a whole host of community needs regarding the largest and most complex water operations in the world."
Huffman added that none of the policies outlined in the executive order "will move even a single drop of extra water to communities devastated by these wildfires. The president should be focusing on convincing his allies in Congress to provide Los Angeles the assistance it desperately needs as soon as possible and free from conditions. Instead, he is doubling down on conditioning aid to California with unrelated demands."
