Cnn
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In the first month of President Donald Trump’s post, federal and state officials have assigned all the major water supply to the West.
Bureau of Relief – The River Colorado has been entrusted with the responsibility of managing the United States’ largest dams, including the hover and the Glenn Valley, – 40 % of the staff is being deducted, though three people are aware of the matter. And the agency is still not nominated for the commissioner to guide him.
From Trump’s preliminary measures, from staff deductions to US military engineers to open two California dams directly, there have been concerns over the stability of water management in the region.
The administration’s interval on the federal grant for water deductions, which has since been restored, threw a wrench between the seven Western states, how to reduce the River Colorado river and separate Colorado.
Two sources said that internal talks on the rehabilitation are now focused on how to protect the dam’s safety and hydroelectric staff, but the agency’s morale is very few. It is feared that the “purchase” of the so -called staff and the firing of probationary employees has already created a “skeletal staff” that can be achieved further, a man who is familiar with the debate told CNN.
The Bureau of the Home Department has been restricted to work, including rehabilitation, also restricted to $ 1, which complicates essential purchases like oil for dam goods. A spokesman for the Home Department said that Thursday’s department officials “mission is working to ensure timely purchase in support of important activities.”
This is an example of a blanket cut in the federal government without considering the needs of the agencies.
“This is a lean agency. David Hess, a former Interior Department official under President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden, a White House adviser, said. “It is the largest water -wholesale of water in the world. It is managing irrigation districts all over the country. It is not like Washington bureaucracy.
Senior rehabilitation officials have already faced pressure from the White House. In the first weeks of Trump’s second term, representatives of the department’s performance department repeatedly demanded a large California pump system to release a large amount of water to Los Angeles at the end of January, though it never reached the fire extinguisher.
Even the two Dodge agents departed California with the purpose of turning the pumps over, which features those familiar with the incident as a stunt for “photo oops”.
A few days after this failed Dodge Trip, the White House ordered the US Army Corps to release water from the Terminance Dam in Lake Kaviya and the Sheffer Dam on the success of the lake. Finally, 2.2 billion gallons of two dams slipped into a dry California, before local water managers and Republican and Democratic California lawmakers requested the Army Corps to close it.
“I think people saw it and worried that action was being taken without praising the system,” said Sara Porter, director of the Water Policy Center at Arizona State University. “The California system is a part of a large 7 state system and it is better to understand contacts before ordering water spread.”
Two sources familiar with the agency told CNN that it was feared that it could happen again, especially if more and more federal workers were cut off from different water agencies, two sources told CNN.
And earlier this month, one of the DOGE representatives who participated in the California trip, Tyler Hassan, was promoted to the Assistant Secretary of Interior for the policy, administration and budget, according to an interior SEC order. Doug Bergam.
It is a high -ranking position that provides strength to the beauty of the entry and its various bureau’s budget. A spokesman for the Interior Department declined to comment on the personnel’s affairs.
In January and early February, the Trump administration’s grant was seen in Lake Med: Water level fell after the drying of a local tribe for water protection.
During Trump’s first few weeks, Arizona -based wet River Indian community found that its financing had been stopped and that it had spent the Weeks in the week to pay the Interior Department in a week that they were obliged to deal with the water saving project. Uncertainty about the future of the protection agreement, the tribe pulled a 3.2 billion gallons of water from the lake med from the lake to return to their underground storage system.
Med water levels declined, which threatened the Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Arizona, who lobbyed admission to restoration of federal funds.
The Gilala River financing was restored, but the Jaulah River Government Stephen Lewis said in a statement to CNN, “It was particularly disturbing to us”, which added in the length of freezing the funds that “our federal partnership had a breakdown on the river.”
Former Interior Officer Hess said Colorado river water talks are complicated and will be willing to listen to fines and carefully. He added that compensation for the stakeholders to cut their water will be an important part of the ongoing dialogue.
“This is not a problem for the fish vs,” he said, referring to Trump’s initial executive orders. “About it, ‘I’m going to solve this problem of water’ is just a version of destruction on the Colorado River.”
The deadline for 2026 is growing for seven states – Colorado, Utah, Woming, New Mexico, California, Arizona and Nevada.
The federal government has played an important role in determining state talks and deadline. The reduction in the new staff can cause logistics challenges for these talks, as the government’s largest reserves are responsible for the monthly reports about the water level.
In 2021 and 2022, these reports show the water level in Med and Powell, and it is falling rapidly between a megdering and has helped to reducing the use of water in the states.
“The rehabilitation is not only a manager of the Colorado system, but he is practically a technological expert for seven states and water users because we try to find out that new administrative guidelines should look like letters,” said Arizona Water Expert, Porter.
But Western water users see new admission seconds. Porter noted that Bergam as someone who “brings understanding Western natural resources and withholding his sleeves.”
Given the grant financing and deductions in chaos, the states and water consumers are looking to meet with Bergam, two men are aware of the effort.
One source said, “It is good to make it clear about what they plan.”
