In summary
Citing the LA fires, Trump directed federal agencies to “immediately take actions to override” water operations and environmental rules. But the water mostly serves Central Valley farms.
President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order Sunday that told federal agencies to “immediately take action” to deliver more Central Valley water and eliminate rules that stand in the way, including endangered species protections.
In the new order, Trump cited the Los Angeles fires, even though the actions he is ordering — primarily delivering more water from the federal Central Valley Project — would primarily serve farms. About 75% of Central Valley Project water is used for agriculture, while much of the rest goes to cities and towns in the San Joaquin Valley, including Sacramento and Fresno.
“In particular, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall immediately take actions to override existing activities that unduly burden efforts to maximize water deliveries,” Trump’s order reads.
At stake are the rules that guide two massive Delta water systems, the federal Central Valley Project and a state-operated system, the State Water Project. These networks of reservoirs, pumps and canals deliver water to millions of acres of farmland and 30 million people. They draw water from rivers that flow into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay, which imperils Chinook salmon, smelt and sturgeon that are protected by the federal Endangered Species Act.
Trump ordered federal agencies to “expedite action related to any exemption under the Endangered Species Act…for the long-term operation” of the water delivery systems. In addition, he directed the federal Bureau of Reclamation to “take all available measures to ensure that State agencies — including the California Department of Water Resources — do not interfere.” He entitled a section “Overriding Disastrous California Policies.”
Environmentalists are likely to sue if federal agencies override the Endangered Species Act when setting rules that control how much water is delivered via the Central Valley Project or State Water Project.
Several community watchdog and environmental groups, including Restore the Delta and San Francisco Baykeeper, warned that Trump’s actions “will have devastating consequences for California’s water future, public health, and environmental protections, threatening a federal takeover of California’s right to manage its land and waters.”
Noting that the actions would benefit farmers, San Francisco Baykeeper Science Director Jon Rosenfield called the administration “a lawless regime that uses extortion to enrich their political supporters.”
Trump’s order said “it is 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 environmental groups said Trump’s order “conflate fire prevention needs with water operations in California all based on the myth that water operations for environmental protections had any impact on water infrastructure used in the Los Angeles fires.”
Some Los Angeles fire hydrants ran out of water fighting the fires, but city fire and utility officials say it was caused by a sudden surge in demand and limited capacity of city pipelines — not a lack of supply. In addition, the city’s water comes mostly from the Owens Valley and groundwater, not the Delta or the Central Valley.
Rosenfield said the State Water Project ensures, even in the worst of droughts, that communities have a minimum share of water designated for purposes of “human health and safety,” which includes firefighting needs. “They always deliver that human health and safety water, always — it’s never interrupted,” Rosenfield said.
Trump called on the Bureau of Reclamation to operate the Central Valley Project with rules that his first administration implemented in 2020. Reverting to those rules could override rules signed into law by Biden administration officials and endorsed by state officials, in December. The Biden rules would reduce Central Valley Project farm deliveries, but the State Water Project — which serves Southern California cities as well as San Joaquin Valley farms — would receive more water compared to Trump’s 2020 rules.
Directors of the state’s water and resources agencies could not be reached for comment.
Ryan Endean, a public information officer with the California Department of Water Resources, said in a statement last week that his agency stands by its new Delta water management rules. Under those rules, Endean said, “farms and cities have the potential to gain additional water supply, while endangered species are protected. To abandon these new frameworks would harm California water users and protection of native fish species.”
The Central Valley Project provides about 5 million acres feet of water to farm, enough to irrigate about a third of the agricultural land in California, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. It also delivers about 600,000 acre-feet for municipal and industrial use, enough to supply about 1 million households with water each year.
The order follows a series of remarks in recent weeks by the President which reflect a profound misunderstanding of California’s water supply, weaving between inaccurate and fantastical.
In Pacific Palisades on Friday, while visiting with local leaders in the aftermath of the region’s wildfires, Trump said, “We have to have that water … You’re talking about unlimited water coming down from the Pacific Northwest, even coming up from parts of Canada, and it pours down naturally … you’ll never run out, you’ll never have shortages and you won’t have things like this, and when you do you’ll have a lot of water to put it out.” Water does not flow into California from Canada, and the Pacific Northwest does not feed into Central Valley rivers.
The order also includes provisions to expedite aid to victims of the Southern California wildfires and Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.
He ordered federal agencies to provide a plan that “expedites options for housing relief to survivors displaced by wildfires in California.” Also, “within 5 days from the date of this order, he ordered federal agencies to “expedite the bulk removal of contaminated and general debris” in order “to accelerate the rebuilding of areas devastated” by the wildfires.