A new, dangerous era of water management begins under President Donald Trump | Opinion

I have been around western water management long enough to work for some very different leaders. In Arizona, I worked under Gov. Bruce Babbitt implementing the state’s groundwater management act. Later, in California, I worked for Govs. Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, both with different styles and priorities.

Now, however, I fear we have entered a new, dangerous era under President Donald Trump’s second term. In recent days, we have witnessed water management decisions being made in Washington without the benefit of input from local experts and those being impacted.

Western water is as complex as an issue can get. Trump’s uninformed, shoot-from-the-hip style does not bode well for addressing the many connected and complicated issues facing western water managers.

The recent federal engagement in California in the San Joaquin Valley was not only ineffective but wasteful and dangerous. By all accounts, the White House suddenly ordered the Army Corps of Engineers, operators of dams on the Tule and Kawheah rivers, to start releasing water from essentially zero to filling the river channels.

Water was released for a few days, reaching the terminus of both rivers in the Tulare Basin. No lives were lost. Damage to property was largely averted. But no good came of this action. And it most certainly did not provide more water to the fire-scarred regions of Los Angeles, where Trump had wrongly blamed the devastation partly on a lack of water supply from Northern California.

Sudden unplanned releases of water — with no public notice in advance — is the opposite of sound water management. When one takes drastic action to address a problem that doesn’t exist and without any coordination, a lot can go wrong.

In the best of times, California water management is challenging and complex by any standard. Our system includes the largest federal water supply project contained in any state, the Central Valley Project, which I also managed as the regional head of the federal Bureau of Reclamation. California also operates the single largest state water supply project in the nation, the State Water Project, which I have directed as well.

Add these two huge projects to the literally dozens of local water supply projects and, together, these local systems provide more supply than the state and federal projects combined.

But the mission of California water management is not confined to supply. We must operate with flood protection, the environment and disadvantaged communities lacking safe drinking water in mind.

If these competing needs are not overwhelming enough, now we must manage based on our rapidly shifting climate, leaving us with dramatically different precipitation and runoff than when the water system was constructed.

It should be no surprise that this robust system of reservoirs, canals, pumps and pipelines can pose many conflicts and has for more than 100 years. Because of the diverse needs of agriculture, urban, environmental and safe drinking water interests, there is conflict, advocacy, litigation and occasional progress through compromise and creativity.

However, this system, which appears chaotic, supports a state economy larger than all but four countries and the largest state economy in the nation; extensive habitat and river restoration; the most productive agriculture in the world; and, finally, is moving to assure safe drinking water for everyone.

Every water interest has its “unicorn solution” that would meet its need forever (usually at the detriment to other interests). There is no substitute for the hard work, leadership and commitment needed to find creative solutions to problems in the face of changing conditions.

The recent federal action to release water in the Central Valley to help with firefighting in Southern California is the antithesis of leadership.

The federal action directed from Washington to release water from two Central Valley reservoirs ostensibly to fight fires in LA was an ineffective response to a fake problem. Not only has there not been a supply shortage in fighting these devastating fires, the reservoirs that were tapped are not connected to any system that would supply LA.

However, the rapid and unexpected increase in flows in two rivers caused immediate concerns about potential damage to downstream levees and loss of stored water, which could be critical to local farmers next summer. This may have been a great sound bite or post on social media, but it was a blow to sane water management.

The irony in all this political theater masquerading as decisive action is there are many employees at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation who could have explained in five minutes why this was a bad, unworkable idea. Those employees who know how to make the system work were blindsided, and the new administration wants many of them to take buyouts and leave. Absent institutional knowledge about California water, what possibly could go wrong?

Vague directives to people without subject matter expertise will not end well. We need the engagement of a knowledgeable federal team. They need to be empowered and not dismissed.