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https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2024/09/26/donald-trump-says-he-will-divert-large-faucet-of-the-columbia-river-south-to-thirsty-california/
Former President Donald Trump suggested there was a “large faucet” up north that could solve all of California’s water needs for its cities, its farms and to wet down its forests so they don’t burn so fierce.
“You have millions of gallons of water pouring down from the north with the snow caps and Canada, and all pouring down and they have essentially a very large faucet,” Trump said this month.
We call that faucet the Columbia River.
“You turn the faucet and it takes one day to turn it, and it’s massive, it’s as big as the wall of that building right there behind you. You turn that, and all of that water aimlessly goes into the Pacific (Ocean), and if they turned it back, all of that water would come right down here and right into Los Angeles,” he said.
Folks in British Columbia reacted immediately.
“It’s not that simple. To me, it’s an uninformed opinion. It’s somebody that doesn’t fully understand how water works and doesn’t understand the intricacies of allocating water not only between two countries but also for the environment,” Tricia Stadnyk, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Calgary, told CTV TV in Calgary.
The Columbia River begins in Canada and flows south to Oregon. The Snake River is its largest tributary. This isn’t the first time that California and Nevada have looked north to get more water.
In 1990, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn won the unanimous vote of his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors to study transferring water from the Snake and Columbia. He said in the 90 billion gallons of water a day running into the Pacific Ocean from the Snake and Columbia basin are ‘sinful and wasteful.”
Former President Donald Trump suggested there was a “large faucet” up north that could solve all of California’s water needs for its cities, its farms and to wet down its forests so they don’t burn so fierce.
“You have millions of gallons of water pouring down from the north with the snow caps and Canada, and all pouring down and they have essentially a very large faucet,” Trump said this month.
We call that faucet the Columbia River.
“You turn the faucet and it takes one day to turn it, and it’s massive, it’s as big as the wall of that building right there behind you. You turn that, and all of that water aimlessly goes into the Pacific (Ocean), and if they turned it back, all of that water would come right down here and right into Los Angeles,” he said.
Folks in British Columbia reacted immediately.
“It’s not that simple. To me, it’s an uninformed opinion. It’s somebody that doesn’t fully understand how water works and doesn’t understand the intricacies of allocating water not only between two countries but also for the environment,” Tricia Stadnyk, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Calgary, told CTV TV in Calgary.
The Columbia River begins in Canada and flows south to Oregon. The Snake River is its largest tributary. This isn’t the first time that California and Nevada have looked north to get more water.
In 1990, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn won the unanimous vote of his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors to study transferring water from the Snake and Columbia. He said in the 90 billion gallons of water a day running into the Pacific Ocean from the Snake and Columbia basin are ‘sinful and wasteful.”
