In one of the first acts of his second term, President Trump is seeking to put his stamp on California water policy. cities.
Trump issued a Memorandum Federal agencies were ordered Monday to resume work on “substantial water lines” from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to other parts of the state “for the use of people there who need a reliable water supply the most.”
Trump ordered his Interior and Commerce secretaries to report on efforts to implement the new policy by April 20. It is not clear how his order seeks to accomplish that objective.

President Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Tuesday.
(Julia Temari Nickinson/Associated Press)
Carla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, said the approach outlined by the president would do significant harm by jeopardizing water supplies and protecting vulnerable fish species.
Nemeth said Trump's order would not change anything and the status quo Rules for the Operation of California's Water Distribution Systems In the Central Valley — which was backed by the state and adopted by the Biden administration in December — remains in place.
Presumably, the president is instructing agencies to restart the long process of rethinking the framework that governs how two major water supply systems, the State Water Project and the Central Central Valley Project, are operated.
“The process, which was completed in December 2024, took more than three years, using the best available science and projects working together to balance the needs of tens of thousands of Californians, businesses and agriculture while protecting the environment,” Nemeth said. “Abandoning these new structures will harm California water users and the conservation of native fish species.”
Trump tried to change California water regulations and policies during his first term. But when his administration Adopted water rules Undermining environmental protections in the Delta, the state and conservation groups successfully challenged the changes in court.
This paved the way for the Biden administration to work with the administration of Governor Gavin Newsom Create a current plan and ancillary biological considerations that determine how much water can be pumped into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and how river flows are managed.
The rules govern the operation of dams, aqueducts and pumping plants in the Central Valley Project and State Water Project, the world's largest water systems that provide supplies to millions of acres of farmland and about 30 million people.
The drive to distribute farms and cities has contributed to environmental degradation in the delta, where threatened or endangered fish species include steelhead trout, two species of chinook salmon, longfin smelt, delta smelt, and green sturgeon.
In his memo, Trump said his administration's plan would have provided “vast amounts of water” during his first term, but that the government's lawsuit led to a “disastrous shutdown” and added water was “flowing wastefully into the Pacific Ocean.”
Trump has repeatedly said the ongoing wildfires in Southern California underscore why more water needs to be sent south from the Delta.
A Interview with Fox News this weekTrump threatened federal aid for wildfire recovery if California accepts changes to water policy. “I don't think we have to give anything until we get the water flowing down in California,” he said.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Trump said his administration would “take care of Los Angeles” and criticized the state for what he described as a lack of water flow.
“Los Angeles has a lot of water. All they have to do is turn on the valve,” Trump said during a press conference on Tuesday. “They created an inferno.”
But water managers and experts say Southern California cities are not currently running out of water. Record high levels 2023 and 2024 followed by abundant deliveries.
Newsom Said A change in water management in Northern California would not have affected the impact of the fire. Office of the Governor said on social media That California is “pumping as much water now as under previous Trump-era policies” and that “Southern California has no water shortage.”
Despite adequate supplies in reservoirs, local water systems were pushed to their limits as the fire spread rapidly due to strong winds.
While the LA water system lost pressure In Pacific Palisades areas, few fire hydrants It ran dry in the highlandshampering firefighting efforts. Newsom last week He ordered an investigation Loss of water pressure to hydrants and lack of water from the reservoir at Pacific Palisades No commission for repairs.
“Although water supplies from local fire hydrants are not designed to extinguish wildfires in large areas, the loss of supply from fire hydrants may weaken efforts to protect some homes and evacuation corridors,” Newsome said. “We need answers to how that happened.”
State officials have stressed that Trump's proposal would do nothing to improve the current water supply in the Los Angeles basin.
But if the Trump administration scraps the current water supply rules and reverts to the previous 2019 framework, Nemeth said, “there is the potential to harm Central Valley farms and Southern California communities that depend on water supplied from the Delta.”
Current rules and biological concepts provide additional flexibility that allows operators of pumping facilities for the Delta to “respond more dynamically to real-time conditions,” Nemeth said. “Farms and cities have the potential to secure additional water supplies while protecting endangered species.”
Trump has hinted at trying to weaken environmental protection measures, and has questioned why the state should keep certain flows in rivers to help species like the Delta spawn “tiny little fish.”
A federally endangered delta smelt swims around a holding tank at the UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory after being transferred from the lab to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach in 2019.
(Alan Shaben/Los Angeles Times)
“It's a fish that's going to do poorly anyway,” Trump said this week.
Peter Gleick, a leading water and climate scientist, said Trump's order on California water policy “is what you get when you mix vulgarity, ignorance and misinformation.”
“There is no legal, economic or environmental need for 'massive amounts of water' to be diverted to various users in California, but this executive order will make some of Trump's supporters feel like he is doing something,” said co-founder Gleick. and a senior fellow at the Pacific Institute, a water think tank in Oakland.
“He didn't really know how California water systems worked,” Gleick said. “If he cares about California water, which he really doesn't, he'll focus on climate change.”
The latest Scientific research It shows that global warming, driven by fossil fuel burning and increases in greenhouse gases, has become the dominant driver of severe drought in the western United States.
Examining the combination of factors behind devastating wildfires, UCLA scientists said in an analysis last week that higher temperatures are linked to climate change. Contributed to extreme desiccation of vegetation In Southern California, it's one of the things that make fires so intense.
“He doesn't really have a clue about how California water systems work. If he cares about California water, which he doesn't really care about, he'll focus on climate change.
– Peter Gleik, co-founder and senior fellow at Pacific
Instead of what the president says in “poorly written executive orders,” Gleick said, people should look at what his appointees are doing — and how those actions affect efforts to improve water management.
“It remains to be seen how disruptive Trump's environmental appointments will be,” Gleick said. “The biggest risk is that it's going to delay or derail efforts to address these issues.”
Trump's call for more supplies to agricultural regions and cities adds a layer of complexity. Arguments on Water Management in the Delta Agricultural water districts have long been pitted against environmental groups, fisheries advocates and indigenous tribes.
In recent years, fish populations in the Delta and San Francisco Bay have suffered major declines.
There are numbers of chinook salmon running in the spring collapsed. And fall-run salmon populations are struggling, officials said Commercial and recreational fishing seasons were suspended Last two years.
The Longfin smelt was once an abundant species Listed as endangered Last year under the Union's Endangered Species Act.
Environmental and fisheries groups have sharply criticized Trump's water order.
Scott Ortiz, Managing Director Golden State Salmon Assn.Trump's first administration said rewriting the rules was a “salmon-killing project” because it deprived the fish of critical runs they need to survive.
The closing of the salmon fishing season in the past two years has already led to the loss of tens of thousands of fishing jobs, and another weakness in protection “could further devastate fishing businesses, families and communities,” Ortiz said.
Trump's order continues a pattern of prioritizing the agricultural industry over the needs of other water users and the health of waterways and fish, the group Save California Salmon said. The group objected to the title In Trump's memo, “Putting People Over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Deliver Water to Southern California.”
“Protecting water quality, delta smelt, salmon and other species is not 'radical ecology,'” said Josa Daly, spokeswoman for Save California Salmon.
“It's a matter of protecting water supplies and economies. We need to have enough water in rivers to sustain businesses, prevent toxic algae blooms and ensure clean water for downstream communities,” Daly said. “Salmon survival is tied to our health and the health of our rivers.”
Times staff writer Colin Shalby contributed to this report.