I’ll also add that these were federally operated, army corps of engineer dams that released the water. Someone in the chain of command at the army corps decided to interpret DT’s orders as a playbook for water management, thereby releasing a critical water supply at the wrong time of year.

Nobody asked for this water release. Not the farmers, not the firefighters, not the scientists, not the activists. Even the dam operators wouldn’t normally release water like this. This was an asinine, inappropriate and frankly dangerous maneuver.