President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday blamed the massive wildfires burning homes in Southern California on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s water policies, claiming in a jab on his Truth Social media platform that Newsom put the needs of “essentially worthless fish” over “the people of California.”
“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’s post said.
“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California,” continued the post, one of several he wrote on the California fires. “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!”
But local officials blamed infrastructure for hydrant failures, Newsom’s office quickly pushed back on the facts in Trump’s posts.
“There is no such document as the water restoration declaration — that is pure fiction,” said Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s director of communications. “The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”
Fire officials have said strong easterly Santa Ana winds have been the main factor fanning the wildfires in Southern California, with Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott saying fire in Pacific Palisades was “rapidly spreading due to the significant winds that we have.”
Though Southern California has seen much less rainfall this winter than Northern California, California’s water storage reservoirs throughout the state are mostly at or above their historic averages to date.
Firefighting efforts in Pacific Palisades against the largest of the four fires burning in the region were hampered by local water supply limits that led to scores of fire hydrants running dry. But local officials blamed outdated infrastructure rather than limits on state water transfers from Northern California. Firefighters used water tenders, as they do in wildland fires, to provide water for firefighting.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power indicated that before the fire, all the tanks that supply the city’s water infrastructure were filled, but firefighting needs quadrupled demand and lowered water pressure, the Los Angeles Times reported. Critics including a local developer and former LADWP commissioner blamed the utility for failing to invest in its infrastructure.
Weather conditions were blamed for grounding some firefighting aircraft initially, but air tankers and water-dropping helicopters were reported to be making drops at the fires.
Though local officials haven’t cited water supplies from the Delta as factors in the firefighting effort, California has long debated how to divide its limited water among its people, farms and fish, and Trump has a history of criticizing the amount the state devotes to protecting threatened fish populations.
During his first presidential term five years ago, the Trump administration urged the state to pump more water from Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to send to farmers and residents further south. Environmentalists argued it would further stress endangered smelt and Chinook salmon fish.
In November, the state announced a new operating permit for California’s State Water Project it said would preserve water supply while protecting endangered species. It too has been criticized.