Another repeated lie by Trump regarding California... [View all]

Trump keeps saying (a couple of dozen times at least!) it that Los Angeles burned because they (Newsom and CA officials) wouldn't "open the valve" to release the water from the Pacific Northwest - presumably the Columbia River basin. They wouldn't release the water because they have to keep it in the river to protect fishes, which Trump doesn't care about.

As a water system engineer with 45 years' experience, I just need to say that is totally inaccurate.

1. There is no water connection or pipeline from the Pacific Northwest to California. There never has been and never will be.
2. There is a water system from the Sacramento River (State Water Project) down to Los Angeles. That was the one Musk's incel boys tried to turn on to send more water down the pipe. They were kicked out of the station and rightly so.
3. Trump finally prevailed on a Corps of Engineers officer (who does work for Trump) to release 2 billion gallons of water from a big reservoir in California. The water flowed north, away from LA, and went into a dry lakebed to evaporate and be wasted. That water is needed now for agriculture in the Central Valley but it is gone.
4. The municipal water utilities in the LA Basin have a capacity of over 3 billion gallons per day. There was no lack of water. The reason all the houses burned is that the residential areas have smaller pipes (6-inch to 12-inch) and they cannot provide enough water to put out a very intense fire like those that happened. While to put 24-inch and 36-inch pipes in every residential street and ten million gallon water reservoirs on every square mile of residential land is simply impossible. That's what it would take.
5. To entrust your water policy to a bunch of f_____ing idiots is not a good idea. Starting with the top idiot.