OK, Chelsea, generally, we don't get too involved in the chit show that is the political world. I found a story. Now, with everything Trump is doing, I felt like it would be impossible to say there's a fringe topic in here because everything's front and center. I think this one's swept by and I think it is important for people to know. So. OK, I'm scared. Yeah, this one is scary. So. Oh, no, I don't need something else to worry about. So this comes from the website, Alternat.
I've seen it multiple places. This one is importantly not paywalled, so we're going to be reading it written by Carl Gibson on February 1st. Article title, very dangerous. Trump dumps billions of gallons of water. Farmers were counting on for summer. We're just talking about this today. So President Donald Trump recently ordered the release of massive amounts of water from two California dams.
And now local farmers are scrambling to preserve precious, fresh water resources needed for dry summer months. Los Angeles Times reported Friday that the US Army Corps of Engineers acting on Trump's orders released water from Terminus Dam at Lake Kawiya and Schaefer Dam at Lake Success, which are both in Tulare County in the San Joaquin Valley.
Whereas water was originally flowing from the Terminus Dam at 57 cubic feet per second, it's now reportedly flowing at more than 1500 cubic feet per second. The flow from Lake Success went from 105 to 990 as of Friday morning. In opposed to his official X account, which is Twitter account, Trump tweeted, I love that they still say tweeted, quote, a photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California. Today, 1.6 billion gallons and in three days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons.
End quote. He suggests that the water release will help officials in the Golden State fight wildfires in Southern California. Quote, everybody should be happy about this long fought victory. I only wish they listened to me six years ago. There would have been no fire. End quote.
He tweeted in response to an inquiry from the Los Angeles Times, US Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson, Jean Pollack, confirmed the release of the water from the dams was done, quote, to ensure California has water available to respond to the wildfires and that the water release is consistent with the direction of Trump's January 24th executive order announcing emergency measures to provide water resources in California. End quote.
However, water manager in Tulare County told Bakersfield, California based newspaper, SJV Water, which covers water issues in the San Joaquin Valley, that there are multiple physical and legal barriers to prevent the valley's water from getting to Southern California. SJV Water reported that the water would have to be pumped at great expense across the valley to the California Aqueduct, where it would still need to travel hundreds of miles to make it to Los Angeles area.
Quote, every job belongs to someone. The reservoir may belong to the federal government, but the water is ours. If someone's playing political games with this water, it's wrong. End quote. Saquoya River Watermaster, Victor Hernandez told SJW Water.
The two dams are considered important reservoirs of water for farmers in San Joaquin Valley, which is known for its citrus belt that produces more than four million tons of citrus fruit, particularly mandarin, navel and Valencia oranges, along with grapefruits and lemons. In the 2020 to 21 season alone, Tiller County water manager Dan Vink said the release of water from the dams could make irrigation difficult.
Quote, a decision to take summer water from local farmers and dump it out of these reservoirs shows a complete lack of understanding of how the system works and such a very dangerous precedent. This decision was clearly made by someone with no understanding of the systems or the impacts that some come from major political actions. End quote.
Vink said. Climate scientist Peter Glick, who specializes in water issues, lamented on Blue Sky that water resources farmers have been relying on were effectively thrown away by Trump's administration all for the sale of a photo op and a bragging media post. Quote, this water will not be captured, will not be useful for cities or farms or firefighting. It is now lost. End quote. Glick wrote. That appears to be the end of the article.
So there is likely going to be water shortages for California's farmers come summer. And that is where a lot of farms are like a lot of food gets going in California. Here was what I came up against today says directly in the article that it isn't benefiting the fires. No. And in fact, it was it almost flooded a lot of places killing people. That's the thing about that. I don't know what he's thinking. Yeah. Or why he would say they need water, give them water, this won't help them.
Yeah. And he's just creating further devastation. I yeah, I just didn't want this one to get missed because I think it's going to have an impact on everybody come the summer and fall. It's going to have a huge impact. Yeah, like we're just going to be out of certain products in a lot of places because of it. I mean, for an issue for us, maybe given the current state of events are going. Yeah. Well, Canada, unfortunately, can't get away. We don't we can't grow citrus fruit in Canada.
So like we do have to rely on other places. And because of that, that's why places end up with highly specialized crops like that. Yeah, that can grow it. I mean, even if it was here, it probably be very, very unimaginable, but huge impact all around either way. Yeah, that's definitely something I've been wondering about what's going to be going on in the news. That's going to slip under the radar. And this is probably one of them. I'm sure there's going to be more.
Yeah, it's yeah, it's really just a deluge of like so much going on that every now and then there's something I don't. I feel like we can't mess because it'll be fringy. And this is one of them. Yeah, I agree. And with that, you guys got 48 hours. Maybe preserve some oranges. Maybe make some nice marmalade. I don't know. You got 48 hours. You do something with oranges. I don't bake that much. Bye. Bye.