Trump Suggests "Very Large Faucet" to Solve California Water Shortage

"I’m sure Mr. Trump has never studied hydrology or the economics of water management."

Drip Drip

Donald Trump has a bold and nonsensical plan to solve California's water shortage crisis: by shipping it down from the Rocky Mountains via what he describes as a "very large faucet."

As Portland, Oregon's KOIN reports, experts are raising eyebrows at the claim the ex-president made during a campaign stop in the Los Angeles area earlier in the month.

"You have millions of gallons of water pouring down from the north, with the snow caps and Canada, and all pouring down," Trump said between fundraisers in LA's ritzy Rancho Palos Verdes community. "And they have, essentially, a very large faucet, and you turn the faucet, and it takes one day to turn, and it’s massive."

"You turn that, and all of that water goes aimlessly into the Pacific," the GOP nominee continued. "And if you turned it back, all of that water would come right down here and right into Los Angeles."

Speaking to the Portland news outlet,Larry O'Neill, Oregon's state climatologist, pointed out that the mechanics of Trump's "very large faucet" simply don't make sense.

"There is indeed no such diversion system," O'Neill said, "and none has been seriously proposed that I am aware of."

Treaty Terms

While it's unclear who the "they" in Trump's bizarre yarn refers to or what exact mechanism the presidential contender is referring to, Canadian media suggested earlier in September that it's likely he was referencing diverting water via the Rocky Mountains' Columbia River, which runs through British Columbia and into Washington and Oregon.

In an interview with the country's Global News outlet, Werner Antweiler of the University of British Columbia said that Trump's idea isn't actually new.

"The idea seems to be in the heads of people that Canada has all this wonderful water," Antweiler, who teaches business at the BC university, told the publication.

Antweiler noted that there are a number of reasons such a scheme wouldn't work. It would be way too expensive to implement, the professor said, and this sort of resource diversion would also likely violate the Columbia River Treaty between the neighboring countries that "regulates how much water is flowing across the border and what it’s going to be used for."

"I’m sure Mr. Trump has never studied hydrology or the economics of water management and the actual, the needs of California," the professor continued, "because what California needs is mostly local water."

Between this imaginary faucet and his intense fear of windmills, it seems pretty clear that Trump has not, in fact, studied how this stuff works — but that doesn't make it any less funny when actual experts point it out.

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