'Military did not enter California' to turn the water back on: state water officials

California water officials are pushing back on false claims by the White House that the Trump administration sent the U.S. military to quote "turn on the water" in the wake of the Los Angeles County wildfires. 

What they're saying:

"The military did not enter California," the California Department of Water Resources wrote late Tuesday night in a rare post on social media directly aimed at the president. "The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days. State water supplies in Southern California remain plentiful." 

The post comes after Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, indicated strongly that Trump's visit to Los Angeles last week caused the water to start flowing again.

"The water has been turned back on in California," she said. "And this comes just days after President Trump visited Pacific Palisades. And as you all saw, applied tremendous pressure on state and local officials in Pacific Palisades, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, to turn on the water and to direct that water to places in the south and in the middle of the state, that have been incredibly dry." 

 

The other side:

Trump had also posted a false claim on social media that the "United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest and beyond." 

What we know:

Most of California’s water comes from the north, where it melts from mountain snow and runs into rivers that connect to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. 

From there, much of it is sent further south to farmers and cities like Los Angeles through two large pumping and canal systems. 

One is run by the federal government and the other by the state. There is no water supply from the Pacific Northwest that connects into California’s system.

The backstory:

There is a long-running debate in the state over how California divides water between farms, cities and environmental uses, such as keeping a certain amount of water flowing through rivers and out toward the ocean to protect fish populations. Trump has sided squarely with farmers who want more water.

Trump has incorrectly said California’s water conveyance policies are to blame for hydrants running dry as Los Angeles-area wildfires raged on. He threatened to withhold federal aid for the region unless the state changed its approach on water management. On Sunday, his administration released an executive order that aims to send more federally controlled water south.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the federal pumping system, declined to comment on why the pumps were offline for maintenance or on Trump’s comments that the military was involved. The California Department of Water Resources directed questions on the pump maintenance to the federal government.

One U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military activities, said no active duty troops were involved in turning the water pumps back on.

The White House suggested Tuesday that Trump was referring to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but did not provide details about how much water was involved, where it came from or how changes were implemented. 

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