California has no shortage of water, but firefighters battling monster blazes across Los Angeles are facing scarce resources to keep up with a blaze that has threatened thousands of lives, homes, land and wildlife.
At the same time, he challenges critics Gov. Gavin Newsom He called for “not doing politics,” arguing that political mismanagement was precisely the reason.
“It's all political,” Edward Ring, director of water and energy policy at the California Policy Center, said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “The whole issue is political, and it's ironic that they're politicizing it by saying it's about climate change, which is a political wedge they use all the time, and it's actually one of the least contributing factors.”
Experts place blame primarily on the state's handling of forest management and a lesser-known problem: the state's antiquated water reserve system. California exists Reservoirs can only hold so much water, and many were built in the mid-20th century.
Last year, the state experienced record rainfall after an atmospheric river event, but existing water infrastructure struggled to manage the sudden influx of water. Much of that rain was dumped into the ocean.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass tour the downtown business district of Pacific Palisades 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 into the Pacific Ocean to protect endangered delta smelt and salmon. States restrict the amount of water that can be diverted for storage, even during wet years.
“There's a lot of water,” Ring says, but the main challenge in moving water south to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley and cities in Southern California is not infrastructure capacity, but the ability to provide it. Environmental policies. He points to a “consensus among bureaucrats and board directors” who oversee California’s water management, which prioritizes keeping more water in rivers to support endangered fish.
“That's true as far as it's concerned,” he said, but despite these efforts, salmon and smelt populations have not recovered. In addition, there is growing concern that sturgeon may soon be classified as endangered as well.
He added, “These endangered fish are used as a reason to leave water in the rivers.”
Khaled Fouad and Mimi Lin embrace as they inspect a family member's belongings destroyed by the Eaton Fire on January 9, 2025 in Altadena, California. The Eaton Fire, fueled by strong Santa Ana winds, grew 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 sophisticated drainage systems that channel rainwater directly into the ocean. They were originally designed with flood prevention, not water storage, in mind, so this presents an additional challenge for the area.
“They're bringing in water from the California Aqueduct, they're importing water into Los Angeles, and they're not bringing enough there, and their reservoirs are depleted,” Ring said. “But the biggest problem, because you won't drain even a half-full tank while fighting a fire, is the water infrastructure in los angeles, Los Angeles' water infrastructure has been neglected. The reason this is neglected is because they want money for other projects.”
He continued: “The bottom line is that they did not spend money on it, and they justified it by saying, 'We have to use less water.'” “So they were encouraging people, and in some cases, rationing, or even forcing people to use less water. As a result, you don't have a system that's that robust.”
One former California lawmaker recently said the state's lack of water infrastructure is “ruining California.”
A woman reacts as she evacuates after strong winds fuel devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area, at the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, on January 8, 2025. (David Swanson/Reuters)
California voters passed Proposition 1 In 2014, also known as the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act, it authorized $2.7 billion in bonds to increase the state's water storage capacity by building new reservoirs and groundwater storage facilities. However, as of January 2025, no new reservoirs have been completed under Proposition 1.
“All these years have passed, and we haven't prepared a shovel full of dirt to move in to implement the project,” Dahle said. “The project wasn't funded, 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 anything about it.”
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The largest wildfire, the Eaton Fire near Altadena and Pasadena, had burned more than 27,000 acres, as of midday Thursday, Cal Fire reported.
When Newsom's spokesperson was reached for comment, Izzy Jardon told Fox News Digital: “The governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”
