Huffington Post
May 28, 2016
TRUMP TELLS DROUGHT-PLAGUED CALIFORNIANS:"THERE IS NO DROUGHT"
Donald Trump told voters in drought-plagued California on Friday that he had a solution to the water crisis: "Open up the water for farmers because there is no drought."
"We're going to solve your water problem..You have a water problem that is so insane," the presumptive republican presidential nominee told a crowd filled with farmers in Fresno.
"It's so ridiculous where they're taking the water and shoving it out to sea."
California is now in it's fifth year of drought, which has taken a heavy toll on agriculture in particular.
Despite an El Nino event that saw an increase last year in snow-packs that supply about one-third of California's water, 86 percent of the state is still considered to be in drought.
Trump insinuated that state officials are mismanaging water policy, at the cost of farmers and their crops.
Farmers have sharply criticized the state's irrigation policies, after cuts to water allotments forced them to leave over a million acres of farmland uncultivated last year.
Water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which flows into the San Francisco Bay and onto the ocean has been a particularly contentious issue.
The Delta is a key source of water to cities and farms in California's fertile Central Valley region.
Some farmers there claim politicians are bending to environmental interests and are prioritizing the habitat of fish and wetlands over farmland creating a "man-made drought."
Trump aligned with those concerns Friday when he said state officials and environmentalists are trying "to protect a three-inch fish," presumably referring to the threatened Delta smelt.
"If I win, believe me, we're going to start opening up the water, so that you can have your farmers survive so that your job market will get better," the reality TV personality told the cheering crowd.
Read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-water-california_us_574910e0e4b03ede4414f435
Or Google:"Donald Trump Tells Drought-Plagued Californians: 'There Is No Drought'
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