Trump calls for opening ‘very large faucet’ in PNW to send water to California

Though it wasn't widely reported in United States media, earlier this month, former President Donald Trump made a suggestion about dealing with California's drought and wildfire crises that apparently involved diverting water from the Columbia River.

In a press conference held in a suburb of Los Angeles at his Trump National Golf Course, the Republican presidential nominee spoke on a variety of topics . But toward the end of the session, a reporter asked a question about the president's thoughts about coping with California wildfires, as well as other natural disasters around the country.

Trump talked about an idea for bringing more water into California, and said, "You have millions of gallons of water pouring down from the north, with the snow caps in Canada and all pouring down, and they have essentially a very large faucet," adding that all of that water goes "aimlessly" into the Pacific Ocean, "and if they turned it back, all of that water would come right down here and right into Los Angeles."

In a report on Canada's CTV News, reporter Tyler Barrow interviewed Tricia Stadnyk, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Calgary, who said Trump was apparently referring to the Columbia River, which starts in British Columbia, and runs through Washington state and Oregon before ending up in the Pacific Ocean.

"We can't just be taking water and diverting it and sending it somewhere else," Stadnyk said. "Besides that, every time that we're asked to do that, it's a sign that we're living outside of our means."

Barrow said, in a voiceover, "Any water diversion, she added, would also have everlasting impacts on the ecosystem, wildlife and humans already dependent upon the water coming from the Columbia River."