Donald Trump’s latest attacks on Gov. Gavin Newsom and California water policy — which the president-elect blames for the Los Angeles fires — misconstrue basic facts about the water system, five experts said in interviews.
Trump wrote Thursday that Newsom “should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State, instead of having it go out into the Pacific Ocean.”
But Southern California’s reservoirs, including one closest to the fires, are full and even above historical averages.
It’s actually “a best-case scenario for emergency response,” said Ashley Overhouse, water policy adviser at Defenders of Wildlife.
Some fire hydrants ran dry not because the region lacked water but because demand was suddenly so high that the hydrants were hard to quickly refill. The idea that firefighters are struggling because Newsom won’t transfer water from Northern California is “utterly absurd,” said Jon Rosenfield, science director at San Francisco Baykeeper.
Source: Washington Post