Trump signs memorandum diverting more water to California farmers

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-signs-memorandum-diverting-more-
water-to-california-farmers

President Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum directing more of
California’s scarce water supply to farmers and other agriculture
interests in the state's Central Valley, a Republican stronghold.

Speaking alongside House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in the lawmaker’s
hometown of Bakersfield, Trump boasted of how his administration reworked
environmental rules to assure more water gets to farmers, while also
taking shots at his political rivals – from California Gov. Gavin Newsom
to Democratic presidential primary hopeful and former New York City Mayor
Mike Bloomberg.

“For too long water authorities have flushed millions of gallons into the
Pacific,” Trump said. “I ordered the administration to update outdated
opinions which determined water allocation in this state.”

Trump added that he is going “to put a lot of pressure” on Newsom to enact
the changes and if the California governor doesn’t follow through then
“you’ll get a new governor.”

Trump has long criticized the environmental rules governing the flow of
water in California – calling the rules “insane” during a campaign stop in
2016 and pledging that he’d be “opening up the water” for farmers.

The environmental rules are meant to ensure that enough water stayed in
rivers and the San Francisco Bay to sustain more than a dozen endangered
fish and other native species, which are struggling as agriculture and
development diverts more water and land from wildlife.

Environmental advocates and the state say the changes will allow federal
authorities to pump more water from California's wetter north southward to
its biggest cities and farms.

The Trump administration, Republican lawmakers and farm and water agencies
say the changes will allow for more flexibility in water deliveries. In
California's heavily engineered water system, giant state and federal
water projects made up of hundreds of miles of pipes, canals, pumps and
dams, carry runoff from rain and Sierra Nevada snow melt from north to
south — and serve as field of battle for lawsuits and regional political
fights over competing demands for water.

Environmental groups say the changes will speed the disappearance of
endangered winter-run salmon and other native fish and make life tougher
for whales and other creatures in the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Ocean.

After an initial study by federal scientists found the rule changes would
harm salmon and whales, the Trump administration ordered a new round of
review, California news organizations reported last year.

Trump kicks off West Coast swing by taking on Democrat establishment,
slamming local leadersVideo
The overall effort “ensured the highest quality" of evaluation of the rule
changes, Paul Souza, Pacific Southwest director for the Fish and Wildlife
Service, said in a statement Tuesday.

“We strongly disagree that the proposal will reduce protections for
endangered species," Souza said.

Beyond operational changes in the federal Central Valley Project water
system, the administration's changes allow for more habitat restoration,
upgrades in fish hatcheries and the water system itself, monitoring of
species and other improvements, Souza said.

Conservation groups have promised new rounds of lawsuits to try to block
the redone environmental rules.

“The species really are in much worse shape” than in earlier years, Doug
Obegi with the Natural Resources Defense Council said. “We are at the
point where we may watch them wink out ... potentially in the next few
years.”


--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.

Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump has boosted the economy, reduced illegal immigration,
appointed dozens of judges and created jobs.

Senile loser and NAMBLA supporter Nancy Pelosi got "Trumped" on February
5, 2020. "President Trump, Not Guilty."