As President Donald Trump prepares to tour the damage of a California wildfire, he is focused on one of his frequent targets of criticism: public water policies.
Since the fires broke out on Jan. 7, Trump has used social media and interviews to blame the state for sending too much water to the Pacific Ocean instead of south toward Los Angeles and highlighted how some Hydrants were dried In the early hours of the firefight in the Pacific Palisades.
In the first hours of his second term, Trump called federal officials To make plans to send more water to the crop-rich Central Valley and densely populated cities in the southern part of the state. Two days later He threatened To withhold federal aid from disaster unless California leaders change the state's approach to water.
Here's a look at the facts behind Trump's comments and how much power the president has over California water:
In general, most of the state's water is in the north, while most of its people are in the drier south.
Los Angeles, the country's second-largest city, depends on attracting water from elsewhere. Meanwhile, the relatively dry central valley is home to fertile land where most of the country's fruits and vegetables are grown.
Two complex systems of dams and canals channel rain and snowmelt from the mountains to the north and towards the south. One is managed by the federal government and known as the Central Valley Project, while the other is managed by the State of California and known as the State Water Resources Project.
Both are transported by water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an estuary that provides critical habitat for fish and wildlife, including salmon and delta hornbills, one of Trump's charms.
Southern California gets about half its water from local supplies such as groundwater, according to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a regional water wholesaler. Metropolitan provides the remainder of the water from the state-owned and federally operated Colorado River system.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power also operates its own aqueducts that draw water from the eastern Sierra Nevada.
Federal officials guide how much goes into the delta to protect threatened species and how much ends up among the Central Valley project's users, mostly farms. This project does not supply water to Los Angeles.
State officials are expected to follow the same environmental guidelines, said Caitlin Peterson, a fellow at the Public Policy Institute of the California Water Center.
Federal and state officials typically coordinate how they manage these systems.
The delta connects inland waterways to the Pacific Ocean and maintains a certain amount of water flowing through supporting fish populations and the waterway itself.
But Trump and others say the government is allowing too much water to go to the ocean rather than to cities and farms.
His previous administration allowed more water to be sent into the Central Valley and out of the Delta. Environmental groups opposed it, saying it would harm endangered species.
Governor Gavin Newsom filed lawsuit Having said that the rules will drive endangered fish populations to extinction. There have been concerns about the tiny delta, which is seen as an indicator of the health of the waterway, as well as the Chinook salmon and steelhead trout that return each year from the Pacific Ocean to the freshwater rivers.
Then-President Joe Biden's administration released its own rules in December, which environmental groups said provided modest improvements over the first Trump administration.
He continued to question the way California's water was managed. Last year on his social truth platform, he criticized “the redirection of millions of gallons of water per day from the North to the Pacific Ocean, rather than using it, at no cost to cities, towns, AND Farms are scattered throughout California.”
Such comments supported the spirits of many Farmers and water managers In the Central Valley, they say federal water allocations have been too limited in the past two years since rain reservoir levels rose. A series of major storms in 2023 helped lift California out of a multi-year drought, but dry conditions have begun to return in central and southern parts of the state.
Now Trump has again directed the federal government to direct more water in the system it controls to farmers and cities.
A little. The farm-pilot debate is one of the worst-worn water resources in California politics and isn't always a good fit for parties. Some environmentalists believe Newsom is too friendly to agricultural interests. But this debate is not about the fire-related water problems in Los Angeles.
Trump suggested to government officials” Turn the valve “Send more water to the city. But public water supplies are not to blame Hydrants running dry and a key reservoir near Pacific Palisades that was not filled.
The problem with the hydrants was that they were overloaded and Santa Ynez Reservoir was empty because it was undergoing maintenance.
Newsoms called investigation into how the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power handled both problems.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has enough water in storage to meet about three years of water demand, said Deven Upadhyay, the agency's interim CEO.
“We can deliver what our agencies need,” he said.
If the Trump administration decides to divert more water to users of the system, it won't necessarily benefit Los Angeles, Upadhyay said.
If there is no coordination between federal and state systems, more that is pulled from the delta on the federal side could prompt California officials to cut city and farm allocations to protect the waterway, he added.
