Moronic Madman Makes Water
Time to lean about Donald Trump and orifice flow...trust me, I just threw up in my mouth after writing those words...
As a kid growing up in Sacramento, nearly every year I looked forward to that day in March or April when the American River was so gorged with water that it rose til it nearly hit the top of the levee. When that happened, word would pass through the neighborhood and it seems like everyone would gather atop the levee – which was easy enough. Head out the back door of the house, though the back gate, into the back field, and run 1,000 feet to the levee top. There, all assembled marveled at the mass of water passing below us, only sixty inches from the soles of our feet.
Look north and the people who lived on the opposite side of the river were doing what we were, staring at the grey gush of water speeding towards the Sacramento River. But the big thrill for us kids wasn’t the water itself. It was seeing all the stuff floating by, stuff that had a year or more to settle under flora, dirt, and mud. We waited a whole year for a big dead tree, usually flanked by all kinds of debris, to rush by. One year, we saw what might have been a car roof or refrigerator, something big and grey. My dad said it was a whale and our eyes lit up - “A whale! Tim, that was a whale!” I exclaimed, as my dad chuckled to himself.
Trudging home, our minds – that is the minds of the neighborhood kids – were fixated on what the water would leave once it receded. As awesome as the swollen river was, the payoff was what was left behind: old beer bottles, tin soda cans, street signs, fenders, all kinds of wood, so many bits of colored glass, and, if we were really lucky, an abandoned car! As soon as the water level fell, my friends and I would climb the levee and rush to the riverbank. We’d fill our bags with junk and then, caked in mud, gather in a garage to show off what we nabbed. It was the best.
As kids, we didn’t know it, but what we experienced was what hydrologists and engineers call an orifice flow, a controlled release of dam water. According to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, orifice flows are used for “flood management, downstream flow regulation, sediment flushing, and hydropower generation. By regulating the flow through orifices, engineers can ensure the safety of downstream communities, maintain ecological balance, and maximize the utilization of water resources.”
While we were gushing at the gusher, state officials were doing a controlled release of water from Nimbus and Folsom dams into the American River for flood management purposes. The release was done in anticipation of warm, spring, mountain rains which would melt the snow pack, sending both rain and melted snow water downstream at a rate that the levee system could not handle.
To preventing topping and/or the weakening of levees, state dam engineers slowly increased the orifice flow of water from the dams, so that after a week or two, the river would be flowing at max capacity. This was not done willy-nilly, on a whim, or for political reasons. Hydrologists and engineers charted out when it was best for a control release to happen and how much water needed to be purged, a very tricky task, being that Northern California’s dam system was used for three things: Flood control, water storage, and energy production. Open the gates early and, if it’s a regular rainy season, flood control is taken care of, but at the possible expense of water storage and energy production. Lag on releasing water and cities downstream are prime for flooding, especially if a sudden mass of water increase due to rain and runoff puts pressure on levees to the point where they are damaged or fail.
Managing orifice flow is complex. It is an art and a science that has been developed over years. While we can’t predict what a season of weather will bring us, how much water we will end up with come spring, or how deep the snow pack will be from year to year (especially now with climate change), we do know how to regulate the flow of water, specifically how much water our dams, levee system, and flood control infrastructure can handle. We also know how much water farmers typically need for their crops.
We know that the flood control system is interlocked. We know that many of our waterways are dependent on each other. Managing the flow of the American River without knowing what is going on with the Feather, Yuba, Bear, or any other waterway that serves the Sacramento River, or what is going down with the San Joaquin and its tributaries is so mindboggling mad that it is not done. Every year, experts spend months creating plans and back-up plans and back-up, back-up plans. They bring out the math nerds and calculate water pressure and how increasing pressure on one part of the system impacts the rest.
Water experts, dam operators, engineers, and government officials work tirelessly to ensure that those of us who live behind levees, live there with minimal risk of flooding. They use our flood control system to stockpile water for both urban use and agriculture. The experts are just as determined that Central Valley and Central Coast farmers have the water they need, as they do that the rest of us don’t die of thirst. They also are trying to make sure that we don’t go dark thanks to a lack of electricity generated from dams. And, while they are doing all that, they adhere to a lot of proven procedures to prevent the whole system from being overwhelmed and collapsing, not just immediately but over time.
Donald Trump is not a hydrologist. He is not an engineer or scientist. He knows nothing about dams and the only thing he knows about orifice flow… He knows nothing about water, droughts, weather patterns, climate, rivers, geography, or California. Mention “pounds per square inch” and he thinks we are talking about food. He has a difficult time thinking things through and doesn’t seem to be able to handle a complex thought, especially when it comes to something as complex as California and water. Donald Trump is the last person who should be making any decisions – especially ones borne of politics – on how California manages its water. And, yet…
On January 31, President Trump posted the following statement:
Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California. Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons. Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory! I only wish they listened to me six years ago – There would have been no fire!
Trump had just ordered the release of a massive amount of water from Tulare County’s Terminus Dam and Schafer Dam the into the San Joaquin Valley, which is on the other side of a mountain range from Los Angeles (neither the Kaweah River or the Tule River flow into Los Angeles or Southern California). The sudden, unplanned, politicized release of water put a lot of strain on Tulare levees and waterways, pressure which might not result in immediate damage, but can weaken the overall system, making it prone to future failure.
And, like all California dams, the Terminus and Schafer are multi-purpose. While flood control is a priority, the modern-day importance of the dams is water storage, not just for the state’s cities and towns, but for farmers. In response to Trump’s order, Congressman Jim Costa wrote:
An unscheduled release of water at this time of year, when there is little demand for irrigation water and a snowpack that is below average, poses grave threats to a reliable water supply this year. This could increase the cost of water for farmers for this crop year exponentially due to dry conditions anticipated.
Costa is not the only one complaining. Central Valley farmers, who mostly supported Trump, are upset with Trump. Elected officials of both parties are pissed off. And, of course, the experts that Trump and his ilk love to shit on are pissed off. And all of them should be. What Trump has done is not only meaningless, useless, and foolish, it is also extremely dangerous, as Trump’s premature release:
· Wastes water. Check out the state’s geography and water delivery system and it is obvious that none of this water can be used to fight Los Angeles’ fires not then, not now, not ever, which is what Trump claims it will do. That’s bad in itself. Worse is that this is water intended to go to farmers in a state where we have a water availability crisis in general, one that goes gonzo when drought hits (and we are in a slow-rain year). Farmers do not need or want water in January and February, especially not this water, which usually gets tapped no earlier than May. Trump’s water stunt wastes water.
· Puts unnecessary strain on an already taxed system. Growing up in Sacramento, when you hit adulthood, you become a levee watcher. You not only monitor the health of the levees; you pay attention to maintenance and funding. You have to. After New Orleans and Houston, Sacramento is the biggest urban area most prone to a major flood. So, when you see budgets for levee building and maintenance being cut, you pick up the phone and yell into it because you know that even though levees keep the State Capitol building above water, politicians monkey around with levee spending, which means that our levees are in sadder shape than most of us – including, certainly, Trump – know. But if you do know and you understand the physical danger of this show-biz release, you best be angry.
· Gives the impression that Trump is doing something positive for people. He’s not. Positive would be shutting the fuck up while signing disaster aid bills. Positive would be ordering studies on how to deal with wildfires in urban settings – a relatively new thing that will soon be a “normal” thing. Positive would be nearly anything other than what Trump is doing, which is framing the meaningless, petty, and vindictive as compassionate and helpful.
So, what do we do? Unfortunately, we can’t do anything about Trump’s premature release. He did what he did and it is done. I don’t know if there is anything that we can do to prevent a stunt like this going forward. There isn’t even a lot we can do about the aftereffects of this stunt. I mean, if the water is gone and we go into a drought and farmers desperately need the water and the water is not there, we can’t make water.
What we can do it this: We can talk about this stunt as a stunt, explaining what went down, the danger, and the impact, intended or not. We must make damn sure that Trump’s name is tattooed to this decision, so much so that if we have water shortages, Trump cannot turnaround and blame “California.” And if our levees fail, we have an identifiable political cause.
Finally, we have to reframe Trump as a danger to the system, specifically our flood control and water storage system. Too often we talk about Trump as a general threat, focusing on abstract things like democracy, rights, and fairness. We don’t talk in specifics, as Trump and his people do. They talk immigration and crime in detail, while we talk democracy and equality. It doesn’t matter if your name is John, Juan, or Tuan, when you are paying $6 for a dozen eggs you aren’t thinking about creeping authoritarianism. You are looking for people to blame for high prices and for someone to bring the price of eggs down to $4 a set.
When we get something specific – like Trump’s dance with the dams – we have been handed something valuable. The dam dance is concrete. It is easy to understand. It has an immediate (and distant) impact on us, one that we can measure in water levels, food production, and pricing. Why are produce prices high this summer? Well, some of that has to do with Donald Trump fucking with California’s water, pretending to do something helpful but actually just pissing into the sea for vanity’s sake. Add to that, Trump’s want to destroy FEMA, turning disaster relief over to the states and private operators. California might be able to handle doing some of what FEMA does, but only a fool would trust a “helping hand” offered by Trump-inspired privateers.
Framing Trump this way might not move his supporters, but it softens his support among those who back him because it is politically or economically feasible to do so. Those people - the cynics and opportunists who use politicians as tools until the same pols prove to be useless or counterproductive – they have way more political power and influence than hardcore supporters (as we are seeing with the Trump/Musk waltz). Put some doubts and reservations in the hacks’ minds and it hurts Trump, maybe not right now, but it will down the line, especially if we have a robust movement in opposition.