> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Trump jumps back into California’s water wars with a pro-farmer decree - URL: https://www.smdp.com/trump-jumps-back-into-californias-water-wars-with-a-pro-farmer-decree/ - Published: 2025-01-27T14:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2025-07-31T15:44:11.000Z - Author: Cal Matters - Tags: Food, Government & Politics, Los Angeles, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-06 12:20 It would be impossible to overstate the complexity of [water supply management in California](https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-water-solutions/?ref=smdp.com). Hundreds of federal, state and local agencies decree who or what is supplied with [water](https://calmatters.org/category/environment/water/?ref=smdp.com), when and how much will be delivered, and the prices recipients must pay. Moreover, there are policy differences within those broad categories. For instance, local agricultural water agencies and municipal providers to homes and businesses often have different priorities. The politics of water are even more convoluted, involving not only the public agencies but seemingly countless outside stakeholders, ranging from developers who need water supply commitments for their projects to commercial fishermen who want to protect spawning salmon. The proliferation of competing agendas explains why it is so difficult to reach the consensus needed to move policy forward. It’s not unusual for proposed projects and policies to kick around for years, if not decades, before something concrete occurs. For example, the [proposed Sites Reservoir](https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/02/california-sites-reservoir/?ref=smdp.com) on the west side of the Sacramento Valley now seems likely to be built, but only after 70 years of promotion by backers. The long-planned [expansion of Los Vaqueros Reservoir](https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/long-anticipated-los-vaqueros-reservoir-expansion-cancelled?ref=smdp.com) in Contra Costa County collapsed recently when the East Bay Municipal Utility District pulled out, citing ever-rising costs. More than six decades ago, state water officials proposed a canal to carry water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. After gaining legislative approval, a 1982 referendum blocked construction, and 40 years later, a [proposed tunnel beneath the Delta](https://calmatters.org/environment/2024/05/delta-tunnel-new-price-tag/?ref=smdp.com) remains stalled by a political stalemate. Operations of existing of dams and canals are similarly fraught, particularly divvying up water among farmers, municipal users and flows to protect fish and other wildlife as supplies fluctuate due to climate change. For years, federal and state authorities have sought to reduce diversions by agriculture — by far the largest water users — to bolster habitat flows. Farmers have resisted. The state has sought “voluntary agreements” from farmers in the San Joaquin River watershed between Stockton and Fresno to enhance natural flows, threatening to order reductions if agreements are not reached. But unilateral action by the state would spark a legal battle over water rights whose outcome could not be predicted. Another player in California’s high-stakes water game emerged eight years ago when [Donald Trump](https://calmatters.org/tag/Donald-Trump/?ref=smdp.com) became president for the first time. He forcefully backed farmers in their conflict with state water managers, ordering the Bureau of Reclamation and other federal agencies to adopt more agriculture-friendly policies. Four years later, after Trump was defeated by Joe Biden, the policies were reversed. Just days before Biden’s tenure ended, federal and state water managers last month announced a [new operational agreement](https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2024/10/california-delta-plan-trump-newsom-salmon/?ref=smdp.com). This week, when Trump once again became president, he essentially sought to [cancel that agreement and reinstate his previous policies](https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2025/01/trump-california-water-delta-rules/?ref=smdp.com). Based on a memo to federal water agencies, he directed them to draft a plan “to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state for use by the people there who desperately need a reliable water supply.” Trump not only cited farmers’ needs for a reliable water supply but reiterated his belief that a lack of water deliveries to Southern California made it more difficult to fight deadly wildfires — a contention that [has no basis in fact](https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/01/la-fires-donald-trump-fact-check/?ref=smdp.com). Los Angeles had plenty of water to fight fires, but [hydrants ran dry](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/us/los-angeles-fire-water-hydrant-failure.html?ref=smdp.com) because the system was designed for fighting individual building fires, not massive wildfires, and was overtaxed. Despite the media splash, it’s doubtful that Trump’s decree will be anything more than a relatively brief pause in efforts to resolve California’s water conflicts simply because they are measured in decades, not any one president’s term. By Dan Walters. *This article was originally published by* [*CalMatters*](https://calmatters.org/commentary/2025/01/water-trump-order-delta-farmer/?ref=smdp.com)*.*