E&E News: Padilla asks Pentagon to explain Trump California water claim
By Jennifer Yachnin
California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla is asking the Department of Defense to explain President Donald Trump’s recent declaration that the U.S. military staged an incursion into the Golden State to take control of federally operated infrastructure and increase water deliveries.
In a Tuesday letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Padilla asked for specifics about what units of the U.S. Armed Forces participated in the alleged incident and what “emergency powers” the president allegedly utilized.
“Clarity and transparency on these matters are crucial to ensure that the public is properly informed and that any actions comply with federal laws governing the use of the U.S. military within the United States,” Padilla wrote.
Since returning to the White House last week, Trump has focused intensely on increasing water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Southern California, where wildfires have decimated portions of Los Angeles.
The delta is a major water hub for California that provides water to about 30 million people and irrigates 6 million acres of farmland.
Flows travel from the wet north to the dry south through both the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project, which utilize a system of canals, pumps and storage facilities.
In a post to his social media site on Monday, Trump declared that: “The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond.”
But California’s Department of Water Resources noted that the military did not enter the state, and instead the federal government restarted pumps that had been offline for maintenance for three days.
Padilla pressed DOD to detail how much water is now flowing through the Jones Pumping Plant compared to the week of Jan. 13, the final week of the Biden administration. That facility is operated by the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority for the Bureau of Reclamation.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt similarly skirted requests for details about the military’s role in restarting the federal water pumps during a Tuesday press conference.
“The water has been turned back on in California,” said Leavitt, who later added that, “The Army Corps of Engineers has been on the ground in California to respond to the devastation from these wildfires.”
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