August 6,2018-
Trump tweet blames water politics for fires
Due to increased fire activity in the areas adjacent to and in Yosemite National Park, park administrators and fire managers have made the decision to extend the current park closures due to the Ferguson Fire “indefinitely” they say in a weekend news release.
The wildfire, one of a dozen impacting much of the state, has now charred over 90,000 acres.
Over the past 48 hours, fire has touched all of the roads used to access Yosemite Valley, burning dead and downed trees that can become very explosive and fall without warning. There are also significant terrain hazards for firefighters. These hazards, along with extreme fire behavior and frequent weather changes, have made this an extremely difficult fire fight, officials say.
Since the Ferguson Fire began on Friday, July 13, 2018 park visitors, employees, local businesses and communities have all been affected.The fire has cleared the West’s most popular national park of all visitors that typically would number over 600,000 in a month, if not for the disaster.
Trump Blames Water Diversion For California Fires
President Donald Trump Sunday said California wildfires are made “so much worse” by allowing “massive amount” of water to be diverted to the ocean. Here is his tweet.
“California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!”
Is Yosemite burning because water is being diverted into the Pacific?
Mr Trump does not mention a record 30 days above 100 degree temps across much of California, bone-dry vegetation, years of drought, or climate change. Unheard of weather events, like 143 mph vortex winds in northern California are also playing a part in these hellish turn of events.
Water diversion?
Nor is he seem to be aware of the fact that water has been diverted from the Merced and Tuolumne Rivers for irrigation and drinking water for decades. That includes construction of several dams including at Hetch Hetchy reservoir that provides drinking water for San Francisco delivered unfiltered by pipeline. There, the O’Shaughnessy Dam, completed in 1938, makes possible the 117-billion-gallon reservoir that supplies drinking water to 2.4 million Bay Area residents and hydro-electric power generated by two plants downstream.
The Merced River flows through Yosemite Valley and was protected as a National Wild and Scenic River by Congress in 1987. It flows free until it reaches Lake McClure outside the national park boundaries near Mariposa. There it provides over one million acre feet supply to the Merced Irrigation District which provides northern Merced County farms with water for irrigation through its approximately 800-mile network of canals as well as generating 94MW of power.
Boggles the mind
Reacting to the President’s statement LeRoy Westerling, a UC Merced professor specializing in wildfire and climatology told a newspaper;
“On the water side, it boggles the mind,” he said. “We do manage
all of our rivers in California, and all the water is allocated
many times over. So I’m not sure what he was recommending.
“Even if we eliminated all habitat for riparian species and fish,
and allowed saltwater intrusion into the delta and set up a
sprinkler system over the state, that wouldn’t compensate for
greater moisture loss from climate change.”