"This release is extremely concerning," Cooley said. "It’s providing zero benefit and putting California farmers kra23 at risk of water supply constraints in the coming months."

California Department of Water Resources director Karla Nemeth told reporters that there was little coordination between federal officials and the state and local water managers for the Army Corps releases at the Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success.

"These reservoirs were federal reservoirs, and the state of California was not part of the decision making in this instance," Nemeth said. "We traditionally have a high degree of coordination at the operational level, which really wasn’t a part of this decision."

California’s State Water project supplies water from Northern California to Southern California, including to Los Angeles. Los Angeles’ water supply comes partly from state reservoirs and partly from the Colorado River.

But Los Angeles’ water sources are completely separated from the water system that Lake Kaweah and Lake Success supply. That water system flows into the agriculture-heavy Central Valley — where large farms grow nuts, citrus and grasses for animal feed, among other crops. The water-stressed region is heavily reliant on groundwater and winter precipitation stored in state reservoirs to irrigate crops.

The US Army Corps of Engineers and the White House did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.