Responding to fires in Los Angeles, in Southern California, Trump ordered the Corps of Engineers to release billions of gallons of water from dams in Central California. The problem is, none of that water is going to Los Angeles. There’s a mountain range in the way.

Nobody knows why Trump thinks this water release is a good idea. It’s as if he ordered the release of water from Pineview Reservoir to help drought-stricken St. George.

California water managers say the water was being held in dams for Central California farmers to use when dry summers endanger their crops. That water is flowing now, however, with no crops to water. Much of it will go out to sea, leaving the Pacific Ocean wet but California farmers dry. This will mean higher grocery prices for you.

What’s most concerning is that there’s apparently nobody willing to tell Trump his order was simply wrong, if not stupid. Either that or they did but he thinks he knows best and that’s that.

Water in the west is like gold and the people who manage it, in Utah and California, are highly skilled experts who do not need some guy in Washington DC telling them how to do their jobs.

Keep that in mind when the price of California-grown vegetables goes up this summer.

Charles Trentelman

Ogden