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‘Devastating’: California had record rainfall last year, but lacked infrastructure to store it


California has no water shortage, yet firefighters battling the brutal fires in Los Angeles face scarce resources to keep up with the blaze that has threatened thousands of lives, homes, land and wildlife.

Meanwhile, critics challenge Governor Gavin Newsom call to “not play politics”, arguing that political mismanagement is precisely to blame.

“It’s all political,” Edward Ring, director of water and energy policy at the California Policy Center think tank, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “The whole cause is political, and ironically they politicize it by saying it’s about climate change, which is a political wedge they use all the time, which is actually one of the minor factors causing this.”

Experts place the blame primarily on the state’s handling of its forest management and a lesser-known problem: the state’s outdated water reservoir system. existing California Reservoirs can only hold a limited amount of water and many were built in the mid-20th century.

Last year, the state experienced record rainfall following an atmospheric river event, but existing water infrastructure faced difficulties managing the sudden influx of water. A significant portion of that rain was dumped into the ocean.

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Los Angeles Mayor Bass with Governor Newsom at the scene of the wildfire

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass tour the Pacific Palisades downtown business district as the Palisades Fire continues to burn on January 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

Ring also pointed to “environmental extremists” in the state who have pushed for stricter regulations, such as the Endangered Species Act, which requires fresh water to flow through rivers and into the Pacific Ocean to protect delta smelt and endangered salmon. The mandates restrict the amount of water that can be diverted for storage, even during wet years.

“There’s a lot of water,” Ring argues, but the main challenge in transporting water south for San Joaquin Valley farmers and Southern California cities is not infrastructure capacity, but rather environmental policies. It points to a “consensus among bureaucrats and board directors” overseeing California’s water management that prioritizes keeping more water in rivers to support endangered fish.

“That’s true to some extent,” he said, but despite these efforts, salmon and smelt populations have not recovered. Additionally, there is growing concern that the sturgeon may soon also be classified as endangered.

“These endangered fish are being used as a reason to leave water in rivers,” he said.

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Residents hug each other amidst the debris of the wildfire.

Khaled Fouad and Mimi Laine hug while inspecting a family member’s property that was destroyed by the Eaton Fire on January 9, 2025 in Altadena, California. Driven by intense Santa Ana winds, the Eaton Fire has grown to more than 10,000 acres and destroyed many homes and businesses. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Urban areas, such as Los Angeles, have highly developed drainage systems that channel stormwater directly to the ocean. They were originally designed with flood prevention in mind, not water storage, so this presents an additional challenge for the area.

“They bring water from the California Aqueduct and import water to Los Angeles, but they haven’t brought enough there and their reservoirs are depleted,” Ring said. “But the biggest problem, because not even a half-full tank is going to be drained to fight a fire, is the water infrastructure. in Los Angeles, and water infrastructure in Los Angeles has been neglected. And the reason it’s been neglected is because they want the money for other projects.”

“The bottom line is they haven’t spent any money on it and they’ve justified it by saying we have to use less water,” he continued. “And so they’ve been encouraging people and, in some cases, rationing or even forcing people to use less water. And as a result, we don’t have as robust a system.”

A recent former California lawmaker said the state’s lack of water infrastructure is “devastating California.”

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Woman crying on the sidewalk, with the fire burning behind her.

A woman reacts as she evacuates following powerful winds that fueled devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area, at the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, on January 8, 2025. (David Swanson/Reuters)

California voters approved Proposition 1 in 2014, also known as the Water Infrastructure, Supply and Quality Improvement Act, which authorized $2.7 billion in bonds to increase the state’s water storage capacity by building new reservoirs and water storage facilities underground. However, as of January 2025, no new reservoirs have been completed under Proposal 1.

“And here they’ve been all these years, and we haven’t done a shovelful of dirt to move and do the project,” Dahle said. “The project just isn’t funded, and we had a $100 billion surplus, and we didn’t fund it. And I think that’s the frustrating part, for most Californians, is that when we had the money, and we didn’t do it.” “I don’t do anything about it.”

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The largest of the wildfires, the Eaton Fire near Altadena and Pasadena, has burned more than 27,000 acres, Cal Fire reported as of noon Thursday.

When reached for comment, Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon told Fox News Digital: “The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.



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