Trump’s claim Canada’s water would stop L.A. fires ‘preposterous’: experts

Trump has fixated on California's water management issues to criticize Democratic politicians with what experts say are 'preposterous' claims about Canada and the Delta smelt.

As Los Angeles continues to battle deadly and historically destructive wildfires, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has made what experts call “preposterous” and false claims that California could have avoided the disaster by allowing water from Canada to flow through the state.

Trump, who has fixated on California’s water management issues before and has raised them once again amid the fires, reiterated his claim about Canadian water in an interview with Newsmax Monday evening.

“You know, when I was president, I demanded that this guy, the governor (of California), accept the water coming from the north, from way up in Canada,” Trump said.

“It flows down right through Los Angeles. … Massive amounts coming out from the mountains, from the melts. And even without it, even during the summer, it’s a natural flow of water. They would have had so much water they wouldn’t have known what to do with it. You would have never had the fires.”

Water management and environmental experts say Trump was likely referring to the Columbia River that flows from the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia into the U.S. Pacific Northwest. But they point out the river flows out into the Pacific Ocean between Washington state and Oregon, and there’s no infrastructure to send that water further south.

“The idea that we could send Columbia (River) water specifically to California is preposterous,” said John Wagner, an environmental anthropologist and professor at the University of British Columbia.

Los Angeles County has faced issues with water flows during the wildfires, with some fire hydrants running dry in urban areas, impacting the ability for firefighters to battle the flames. Water trucks have since replenished the dry hydrants.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered state officials to investigate the issue, as well as why a 440 million-litre reservoir was out of service.