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Sierra Club California Blasts Trump's Threat to Withhold Wildfire Aid from California [1]
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Date: 2025-01-24
Sierra Club California today slammed President Donald Trump for threatening to withhold wildfire aid from California unless the state exports more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for corporate agribusiness interests.
Trump is scheduled today to visit the region of Los Angeles County hammered by the climate change-induced wildfires as new wildfires broke out in San Diego County.
"I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” Trump said in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday, repeating agribusiness talking points — and showing his complete lack of the slightest knowledge about California water resources.
“President Trump’s threat to withhold wildfire aid from California unless the state releases more water from the Delta is a shameful political stunt that will threaten the safety and livelihood of millions of Californians,” said Caty Wagner, Sierra Club California Water Campaign Manager, in a statement. “This comes on the heels of Trump’s Executive Order urging agencies to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which would cause the unsustainable depletion of water from an already failing ecosystem to be used for mostly large-scale agricultural purposes.”
However, it is not just Trump who is pushing for more exports.
“Trump’s water policy is closely aligned with Governor Newsom’s, who wants to promote the $20 billion Delta Tunnel to draw even more water from the Delta. These policies would have severe consequences for local Delta communities, Tribes, fishermen, and endangered species,” Wagner argued.
“Sierra Club California strongly opposes Trump and Newsom’s environmentally destructive water policy, and we’ll be fighting to stop them in the courts and at the relevant state agencies. Sierra Club California and our allies will continue to push for adoption of local, sustainable water sources that will create shovel ready local jobs while protecting the Delta’s communities and threatened ecosystems,” she concluded.
Trump issues executive order to shop more water to Big Ag
On Jan. 20, his first day in office for his second term, Trump issued an executive order entitled, “Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California,” repeating many of the falsehoods about California water and the Delta smelt that he stated in a post on Truth Social earlier this month. ”I hereby direct the Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the heads of other departments and agencies of the United States as necessary, to immediately restart the work from my first Administration by the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and other agencies to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state for use by the people there who desperately need a reliable water supply,” the order states. Read the order here:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/putting-people-over-fish-stopping-radical-environmentalism-to-provide-water-to-southern-california/
This memo amounts to an outright attack on recreational and commercial fishing communities, California Tribes, conservationists, Delta communities, family farmers and businesses fighting for the restoration of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. It repeats the canard of "putting people over fish" that corporate agribusiness has been pushing for many years, completely denying the fact that the California recreational and commercial fishing industry and Delta businesses desperately need the water for their livelihoods that depend on healthy fisheries. The order also denies the crucial role that the Sacramento River, its tributaries and the Delta play in the culture and livelihood of California Indian Tribes. Recreational and commercial salmon fishing on California ocean waters and recreational salmon fishing on California rivers has been closed for the past two years, putting thousands out of work, due to the collapse of the Sacramento and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon populations. The collapse is largely due to massive water diversions from the Sacramento River and the Delta for corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies. On the Klamath River, a significant amount of water from the Trinity River, the Klamath’s largest tributary, is diverted over to the Sacramento River through a tunnel in the Trinity Mountains to be used to irrigate crops on drainage impaired land in the San Joaquin Valley. Due to the Klamath salmon fishery collapse, the Yurok and Hoopa Valley Indian Tribes were allowed only a small amount of subsistence and ceremonial fish for their use over the past two years. On Jan. 21, salmon restoration and Delta groups responded to Trump’s memo: www.dailykos.com/...
Delta Smelt absent from CDFW’s fall survey for seventh year in a row
Trump is making the visit to California at a time when the San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem is in its worst-ever crisis.
Zero Delta Smelt, an indicator species that has been villainized by Donald Trump and his corporate agribusiness allies for supposedly being a “worthless fish” while blaming the 2 to 3 inch fish for the Los Angeles Fires, have been caught in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl Survey in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for the seventh year in a row.
It is significant that zero Delta smelt were caught in the survey despite the release of tens of thousands of hatchery-raised Delta smelt into the Delta over the past few years by the state and federal governments.
“The 2024 abundance index was 0 and continues the trend of no catch in the FMWT since 2017,” reported Taylor Rohlin, CDFW Environmental Scientist Bay Delta Region in a Jan. 2 memo to Erin Chappell, Regional Manager Bay Delta Region: nrm.dfg.ca.gov/...
“No Delta Smelt were collected from any stations during our survey months of September-December. While FMWT did not catch any Delta Smelt, it does not mean there were no smelt present, but the numbers are very low and below the effective detection threshold by most sampling methods,” she wrote.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/1/24/2298978/-Sierra-Club-California-Blasts-Trump-s-Threat-to-Withhold-Wildfire-Aid-from-California?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
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