President-elect Donald Trump took to social media Wednesday to blame massive wildfires in the Los Angeles area — sparked by dry winds, warm temperatures and eight months of near total drought — on efforts to save a tiny endangered fish.
In comments posted to Truth Social, Trump criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) over state and federal efforts to bolster water flows for “an essentially worthless fish called a smelt.”
Trump has long begrudged efforts to protect the tiny delta smelt — a 3-inch fish that lives in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta in California — siding with critics who argue that flows from a major state water source would be better used by farmers and major cities, rather than for environmental needs including wildlife habitat.
“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump wrote, in an apparent intentional misspelling of the governor’s last name.
Trump continued, “Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”
In remarks delivered in California last September, Trump criticized Newsom for blocking efforts to ease protections for the smelt and vowed to withhold federal funds for wildfire response if Newsome doesn’t agree to new efforts.
In preparation for potential fires this week, Newsom ordered that dozens of local and state fire engines, helicopters and other equipment be “pre-positioned” to address hazards. The governor also deployed the the California National Guard.
A spokesperson dismissed Trump’s criticisms, adding that the president-elect referred to a nonexistent document.
“There is no such document as the water restoration declaration — that is pure fiction. The governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need,” said Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s director of communications.
Trump’s campaign did not respond Wednesday for a request for clarification. During the first Trump administration, California officials disagreed with the federal government over water management related to the endangered fish.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta serves as a major water hub for California, providing water to about 30 million people and irrigating 6 million acres of farmland, stretching from Northern California into the delta and the San Francisco Bay Area, the central coast and Southern California.
That includes water sent to other areas of the state via the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, which move water through a system of reservoirs, pumps and canals.
Soaring water demand
Los Angeles firefighters did indeed lose water in the middle of the firefight last night.
That’s largely due to the unprecedented nature of the fires, said Los Angeles County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella, who noted over 200 water retailers serve the areas effected by the fires.
“A firefight with multiple fire hydrants drawing water from the system for several hours is unsustainable. This is a known fact,” Pestrella said at a press conference, saying he wanted to address “comments over social media over local water supply and its impact on our firefighting efforts.”
Water drops from airplanes and helicopters are normally critical tools to help fight expansive and fast-moving wildfires, but they have thus-far been prevented by strong winds and decreased visibility from smoke. That’s put all the more pressure on local water supplies to keep up the pace with “tremendous demand” from firefighters, said city public works chief Janisse Quiñones.
“We pushed the system to the extreme, four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight, which lowered our water pressure,” she said.
The trunk water line to Pacific Palisades was pushing water to hydrants at 75 cubic feet per second, and DWP also brought 3 million-gallon water tanks to the Palisades area yesterday in an effort to maintain pressure. The first tank ran out of water at 4:45 p.m. All three tanks were emptied by 3 a.m. today, and “all of the fire hydrants went dry in the Palisades,” Quiñones said.
Public works employees working to refill the tanks also had to be evacuated in the middle of the night.
Since then, the city has found water tanks usually reserved for other uses, like by construction crews, and has sent 20 tanks each full of 4,000 gallons of water to the fire department.
“We are constantly moving that water to the fire department to get them as much as we can,” she said.
In the meantime, municipal water pressure and supply is so low that the city has issued a boil water advisory for at least one ZIP code. County officials also warned residents to only use water if needed and told them not to use personal hoses to try and dampen their homes and prevent fires.
“We need customers to understand that it is really quite futile to attempt to fight fires with your hose at your house,” Pestrella said. “I would ask that you turn off your water and turn off your gas before you leave the residence so that we can continue to have that water supply for the hydrant system.”
Trump is not the only conservative to have picked up on the water supply problems.
Natalie Winters, who co-hosts a talk show with Steve Bannon, posted on the social media site X about U.S. AID funding 16 Ukranian fire departments with protective gear and fire extinguishers.
“But what about California?” Elon Musk asked in a repost viewed more than 3 million times.
