Press Release from Mono County Counsel’s Office on court win against LADWP attempt to take water from Long Valley
Mono County won their court case against a plan by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to remove irrigation water from the Long Valley from Crowley Lake to Bishop.
On Monday, March 8, the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Alameda, issued an order requiring the DWP to continue to “provide water for wildlife, habitat, and scenic, recreational and economic resources in the Long Valley and Little Round Valley regions of Mono County,” according to a news release from the Mono County Counsel’s office.
The decision was the result of a petition filed by Mono County and the Sierra Club under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to prevent damage to valuable environmental resources that would result from a sudden and unanalyzed change in LADWP’s water management practices.
In a news release, the Mono County Counsel Office said:
“Siding with the county and Sierra Club, the Court directed LADWP to continue to provide water which it has historically delivered to ranchers in Long Valley and Little Round Valleys until such time as it completes a comprehensive environmental review.”
The county counsel’s office went on to say, “The ranchers have used the water for close to 100 years to create pasture, wetlands and meadows on more than 6,000 acres of land in Mono County. These areas are critical not only for their habitat, scenic and recreational uses, but also for wildlife, including the Bi-State Sage grouse.
“We are pleased with the Court’s ruling and hope to partner with LADWP to find a mutually beneficial solution for the long-term that protects our region’s habitat and resources, while also addressing the City’s legitimate water needs” said Stacey Simon, Mono County Counsel.
Simon said it is possible the city will appeal the decision.
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DWP, Los Angeles will appeal.
But it’s a victory for Mono County and hopefully Los Angeles fails miserably with the inevitable appeal
Except for waters spread that evaporate or transpire the balance of spread waters goes into the aquifer that ultimately underlies Crowley. Take the recharge away and the aquifer underlying Crowley will be recharge by the lake waters, no benefit, no saved water for DWP to export after several years of drying out the leases. So why is DWP doing all of this? This past year there was a DWP proposal, that has been withdrawn, to drill multiple monitoring wells in Long Valley along Hot Creek and along 395 just west of Crowley with the reason given to assess the effects of not spreading the waters on the leases. Some of us think the actual reason for the monitoring wells was to assess Long Valley as a potential new production well field . We need a CEQA study to address this concern but also to address the impact to the geothermal activity underlying Long Valley. Messing with existing hydrology is what DWP does best and could have devastating consequences with disruptions to the existing historical hydrology in terms of renewed earthquake swarms and other possible geo thermal disruptions .
Now it will become an even more expensive perpetual legal battle for Mono County, which is broke due to it’s huge pension commitments and overstaffing. Wouldn’t these resources be better used for something like rehabilitating the Benton Crossing Road? This heavily used road is in appalling condition and will eventually cause an accident for which the county will be sued, costing millions.
Reality check
Yep,good idea
Let’s blame Mono County pensions and overstaffing for most of it,then let’s somehow find a way to put some blame on Governor Newsom too.
Isn’t that the way things go now ,for some ?
The hell with the landscape,environment,wildlife and scenic value of an area,
So they can spend resources instead on tourists and travelers having a “safer road” to travel and sometimes speed on.
The “lawsuit” you mention with that,I can’t or don’t even want to comment on.
As a property owner in Long Valley directly on Benton Crossing Road, I literally have no idea what this complaint is even targeted at. The road is in impeccable shape.
Eric Cornelius
The “complaint,” is a good chance, just ANOTHER way to complain about local and California Government decisions being made by some.
As if we all had Republicans leading the State, local and County Governments, they’d make “better decisions” on how to use the County and local funds and decisions of funding.
And if they got their way, all that matters is it would mean more money in their pockets and the pockets of the multi-billion dollar companies.
And the hell with the environment, wildlife, livestock ,wetlands, meadows and all the other things so many of us moved here for in the first place to enjoy.
LADWP trolling. Their method is to make it all as expensive as possible, and keep local agencies as distracted with a multitude of non-water issues in order to keep the focus off of their water export, harm to the regional environment, and stifling of local economies.
Have you noticed their recent PR campaign with newsletters, press releases, and advertisements??? Lipstick on a pig.
It is time for LADWP to change their approach – lest the approach continue to be changed for them. Good job Mono County in this lawsuit. And good job Inyo County in pressing the eminent domain lawsuit.
Hey David, you would blame Trump if you could, so why not Newsom
Reverting a few thousand acres of land in Long Valley back to it’s natural state, which existed for many thousands of years, would have almost no impact on the environment or wildlife or on the millions of other acres of public land surrounding it. It might impact the scenic value of Long Valley for a certain local former Mono County Supervisor though, which is why the county is embroiled in this fight. Water right are private property. Private property rights are one of the foundations of our Democratic Republic. Using CEQA to subvert private property rights is nothing more than Soviet-style collectivism. Dennis, have you ever had to go through the CEQA process for doing anything on your private property? If you have, you probably would feel the same about your property rights as I do. And what does the Governor have to do with any of this? Just your own politicization? Eric, please take a drive on Benton Crossing Road to HWY 120 and tell me what you think of the lack of fog lines, the absence of any type of shoulder and thousands of unfilled cracks in the road. Most of this road does not even meet minimum safety standards, hence a lawsuit waiting to happen.
First off, LADWP uses CEQA whenever it suits them to try to stymie private land development. So, your rant serves as a very nice indictment of their use of the courts and EIR process.
Secondly, unless we’re draining Crowley, there was a huge impact in destruction of pre-existing wetlands. Hence the Sierra Club involvement. Species pushed out of their original habitat now occupy this irrigated sagebrush land.
Finally, Benton Crossing is in absolutely stellar shape. I drive on it nearly every day.
The writ of mandate includes a petition to cover attorney and filing costs by petitioners (mono county) which was granted, so no cost to the county!
Why is it OK for Mono County to go to bat for a handful of cattle ranchers?
Can they not hire their own lawyers?
Nice work trying to manufacture a divisive issue that is completely ignorant about what the lawsuit is actually based on.