‘Devastating’: California had record rainfall last year, but lacked the infrastructure to store it

California is not without water shortages, yet firefighters battling the brutal fires across Los Angeles are facing scarce resources to keep up with the blaze that has threatened thousands of lives, homes, land and wildlife.

Meanwhile, critics challenged the call of Gov. Gavin Newsom that they “don’t play politics,” saying that political mismanagement is to blame.

“It’s all political,” Edward Ring, director of water and energy policy at the California Policy Center, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “The whole cause is political, and they’re politicizing it ironically by saying it’s about climate change, which is the political framework they use all the time, and it’s one of the little things that’s causing this.”

Experts lay the blame mainly on the government’s handling of forest management and a little-known problem, the state’s outdated water storage system. California’s existing dams can only hold so much water, and most were built in the mid-20th century.

Last year, the state experienced record rainfall after a flash flood event, but the existing water infrastructure faced difficulties in managing the sudden inflow of water. A significant portion of that rain was dumped into the sea.

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Ring also pointed to “environmentalists” in the state who have pushed for tough laws like the Endangered Species Act, which requires fresh water to flow from rivers and into the Pacific Ocean to protect endangered delta smelt and salmon. Directives limit how much water can be diverted and stored, even in wet years.

“There’s a lot of water,” Ring said, but the biggest challenge to moving water south for farmers in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California cities isn’t infrastructure capacity—it’s environmental policies. He points to a “consensus between officials and board directors” that oversees water management in California that prioritizes keeping more water in rivers to support endangered fish.

“That’s as true as it gets,” he said, but despite these efforts, salmon numbers and smelt haven’t recovered. Additionally, there is growing concern that sturgeon may be classified as endangered again.

“These endangered fish are used as a reason to leave water in the rivers,” he said.

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Khaled Fouad and Mimi Laine embrace as they inspect the belongings of a family member destroyed in the Eaton Fire on Jan. 9, 2025 in Altadena, California. Fueled by strong Santa Ana Winds, the Eaton Fire has grown to more than 10,000 acres and has destroyed many homes and businesses. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Urban areas, such as Los Angeles, have highly developed drainage systems that carry rainwater directly to the ocean. They were originally designed with flood prevention in mind, not water retention, so this presents an additional challenge to the area.

“They’re bringing water from the California Aqueduct, and they’re bringing water into Los Angeles, and they’re not bringing enough there, and their reservoirs are depleted,” Ring said. “But the big problem is, because you can’t even put out a half-full fire extinguisher, the water infrastructure in Los Angeles, and the water infrastructure in Los Angeles is neglected. And the reason it is neglected is that they want money for other programs.”

“The important thing is that they haven’t used the money, so they just justify themselves by saying that we need to use less water,” he continued. “And so they’ve been encouraging people, and in some cases, measuring, or even forcing people to use less water. And because of that, you don’t have a solid plan.”

One recent former California lawmaker said the state’s lack of water infrastructure is “hurting California.”

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A woman reacts as she evacuates following strong winds fueling the devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area, at the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, on Jan. 8, 2025. (David Swanson/Reuters)

California voters passed Proposition 1 in 2014, also known as the Water Quality, Supply and Infrastructure Improvement Act, which authorized $2.7 billion in bonds to increase the state’s water storage capacity by building new reservoirs and underground storage facilities. But as of January 2025, no new lakes have been completed under Prop. 1.

“And after all these years, we have never made a shovel full of dirt to move to do this work,” said Dahle. “This project is not funded, and we had $100 billion in funding, and we didn’t fund it. And so that’s the frustrating part, I think, for a lot of Californians, that’s when we had money, and we didn’t.” I don’t do anything about it.”

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The largest wildfire, the Eaton Fire near Altadena and Pasadena, has burned more than 27,000 acres, Cal Fire reported as of midday Thursday.

When reached for comment, Newsom’s spokeswoman Izzy Gardon told Fox News Digital, “The governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”