JOINT LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST THE LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND POWER (LADWP) FOR LAWS VEGETATION MITIGATION

​BISHOP, CA – On December 17, 2025, the Eastern Sierra Water Alliance (ESWA) filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). The plaintiffs are the three official member organizations of ESWA: the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission, the Sierra Club Range of Light Group, and Friends of the Inyo. This lawsuit aims to bring LADWP into compliance with its legally required vegetation mitigation obligations in the Laws area near Bishop.

​As part of a 2003 project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), LADWP committed to revegetate abandoned pastures in the Laws area, in exchange for creating new pastures in other nearby areas. This effort would have created a biodiverse upland desert scrub community in the previously abandoned pastures by 2013. LADWP agreed to a legally binding CEQA document and revegetation plan. However, LADWP then disregarded its revegetation plan in many ways. It cultivated near monocultures of common plants like rabbitbrush and saltbush, while missing deadlines and communicating only sparsely with the public and Inyo County. This revegetation project in the Laws area is just one of many examples of LADWP evading accountability for meeting their mitigation requirements under CEQA. We will be asking the court to enforce LADWP’s mitigation requirements at Laws, creating the biodiversity it promised.

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​Teri Red Owl, Executive Director of the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission, said: “Our hope is that long-standing commitments to protect the land, water, and ecosystems of Payahuunadü are honored. CEQA compliance is a responsibility, and following through on mitigation measures is necessary to protect our homelands and to ensure accountability for the impacts our communities have endured for generations.”

​“We have been in discussions with LADWP about the Laws revegetation project to no avail. This is about creating good, native habitat and biodiversity in 253 acres in the Laws area,” said Lynn Boulton, Conservation Chair, Range of Light Group of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter. “LADWP initiated this project to help them meet their commitments to their lessees by only irrigating pastures below the McNally canals. But, they did not follow their own requirements for the abandoned agricultural parcels above the McNally canals that were to be revegetated. We are just asking that they deliver what they promised.”

​Mark Bagley, Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter member and 1997 MOU Party Representative, said: “LADWP started the Laws Irrigation Project in 2003 with a commitment in their Mitigated Negative Declaration to revegetate abandoned irrigated pastures in the Laws area by 2013. For the past two years Sierra Club and others have been meeting with LADWP and expressing our concerns that the Laws revegetation projects were not properly implemented and have not been successfully completed. LADWP has disregarded our concerns, so we have been forced to ask the Court to order LADWP to live up to their obligations under the California Environmental Quality Act.”

​“The species and ecosystems of the Owens Valley have suffered from LADWP’s neglect and mismanagement for far too long. We are hopeful that this action will set in motion the fulfillment of obligations, sought and won by this valley’s water protectors decades ago, to mitigate just a small portion of the damage that water extraction has done to our lands and communities. We know there is adequate water and expertise for DWP to satisfy its obligations, it is high time they treated compliance with obligations to the Owens Valley as a higher priority,” said Wendy Schneider, Executive Director of Friends of the Inyo.

​To learn more about the work of our alliance and each organization, check out our websites:

Eastern Sierra Water Alliance: easternsierrawater.org

Owens Valley Indian Water Commission: oviwc.org

Sierra Club Range of Light Group: https://www.sierraclub.org/toiyabe/range-light

Friends of the Inyo: friendsoftheinyo.org

Contact Information

​Teri Red Owl: Executive Director, Owens Valley Indian Water Commission | 760.873.0028 | [email protected]

​Lynn Boulton: Conservation Chair, Range of Light Group of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter | [email protected]

​Wendy Schneider: Executive Director, Friends of the Inyo | 310.849.3662 | [email protected]