In April, LADWP agreed to an outside judge handling their case against MCWD.
Steve Kronick, attorney for Mammoth Community Water District confirmed reports that Judge Randall is assigned to the court case in which the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has challenged Mammoth’s water rights.
The official announcement of that judicial assignment is scheduled for a status conference in Mammoth Court Thursday, May 10 at 9:30am. Randall is the judge who sat on the Hot Creek Lawsuit jury trial and on the more recent writ issued to force Mammoth to pay its $43 million debt. His assignment comes as the result of LADWP’s filing of a change of venue motion and then acceptance of an assigned judge.
LADWP lawyers had at first tried to have the case moved to Fresno, but then in front of a packed courtroom the lawyer said DWP would settle for an assigned judge to hear the case in Mono County. Mono Judge Stan Eller agreed.
Attorney Kronick said that “There are opportunities to challenge assigned judges. He said, “We are evaluating the situation.” Kronick said that the status conference on May 10th is on and will be conducted by phone. He said attorneys will discuss the assignment of the judge on this case and another matter.
Kronick said the other issue for the May 10th hearing is a 60-day extension for the Water District to submit a certified administrative record of the Mammoth Creek fishery flow EIR.
Meanwhile, letters have gone to the Los Angeles City Council, the LA Mayor and the LADWP commissioners asking them to reconsider the untimely and burdensome legal attack on Mammoth’s water rights. The Mammoth Town Council, the Mono Supervisors and Mammoth Community Water District President Tom Smith have all sent letters to LA officials.
The Alpine County Board of Supervisors will also send letters to LA officials supporting the water district and Mono County. The Water District has also posted information on its website about how citizens can fight back against LADWP. Check it out at www.mcwd.dst.ca.us.
Local officials contend that LADWP’s lawsuits are not the proper arena for challenging Mammoth’s water rights. The lawsuits attack the EIR on fishery flows in Mammoth Creek and the water district’s Urban Water Management Plan. DWP alleges that Mammoth’s Water District has no standing to develop either document since Mammoth has no water rights in Mammoth Creek.
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Smart meters have been an issue here in New Zealand. I am a fireman here in the winters. In New Zealand, 422 fires involved smart meters in 2010. Recently, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade launched an investigation in switchboard fires following the installation of the smart meters in Victoria. Thirdly, smart meters create high frequency harmonics (dirty power) that can couple on to the household wiring which is not designed to carry this load. Higher frequency equates to increased heat which could lead to a fire in areas of compromised or faulty wiring. We are fighting to get them out of our community. Just another global scam.
I simply cannot imagine laws put into place and enforced prohibiting more than one shower per week in Mammoth Lakes.
Nothing convenient about my life I work my ass off!
Well No sweat and Altitude we all take our convenient lives for granted, why let the LA snobs take the water they get for granted at the expense of the living beings that I have grown to care so much about???
When LA was buying all the water rights to the Owens and Long valley do you really think they were going to overlook Mammoth Creek? MCWD is going to lose.
I’m not losing any sleep at night worrying that soon the water police will be patrolling the neighborhoods enforcing a one-shower-per-day rule.
Nor concerned that water will be diverted around Mammoth and straight to TinselTown.
Hey Judge Randell- in case you haven’t heard, DWP has been a bunch of lying,cheating thugs for a hundred years. That’s why you are here.
”’
_INADEQUATE REMEDY AT LAW, STAY/INJUNCTION_
76. LADWP and its residents will continue to suffer adverse and irreparable environmental harm from the Project and the District’s failure to comply with CEQA and other laws in approving and carrying out the Project, as described herein, until and unless this Court provides the relief prayed for in this Petition. LADWP has no plain, speedy or adequate remedy at law for this irreparable harm.
”’
How can LADWP’s residents “suffer” when they reside 300+ miles away with so many hectares of desert and arsenic-laden dried-up lake beds caused by years of incessant water diversion between us and them? Considering they acknowledge that 25% of this diversion accounts for the TOML’s municipal water supply (when in reality is is more) how can they even compare our potential suffering to that of LADWP’s if we lose this water source?
I interpret this as a power play attempting to find a flaw in the EIR as a distraction to try and claim senior water rights. I assume any settlement out of this would implicitly acknowledge these “senior water rights”. Where is the proof of said senior water rights?
JP, it depends on what your definition of suffering is. For Los Angeles, not being able to keep the swimming pools filled, wash down sidewalks, have giant lawns that consume water, pesticides, and herbecides then wash it all into the environment is pure torture.
Los Angeles and other big cities exist because they cling to the Infinite Growth Paradigm. They rely on resources being transported to them with cheap hydrocarbon energy that is becoming more difficult to obtain. Los Angeles would not exist in semi-arid southern California without taking water from other locations and transporting it to their growth monster.
With seven billion people on the planet, and more limited natural resources, growth is dead. Los Angeles is a dinosaur who will do anything to keep the illusion of growth alive and that makes them very dangerous.
The only question is the timeline.
A little here, a little there, and the small flows add up. First Mammoth, next forty acres. I’m sure the MCWD is right, trust them, there is no case here. Doesn’t that lingo sound familiar to the tune of 42 reasons, oops I mean 43 by now!