Over the years, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s wholesale water diversion from the Owens Valley dried up the Owens Lake and created what has been described as the worst dust pollution of its kind in the western hemisphere. Now, DWP wants no more responsibility to clean up the remaining dust, appealed a local order to the state air board, filed a federal lawsuit, pushes advertising to demonize the Great Basin Air Pollution Control District and its director and has reportedly authored a resolution for the LA City Council to support their tactics.
In a full-page ad in the Sunday Los Angeles Times on page 11, the LA Chamber of Commerce and two other LA business groups use DWP’s words to blame the Owens Valley for trying to protect the health of citizens from dust that still violates federal clean air standards.
The ad claims the APCD orders to clean up 2.9 more square miles of the dry lake “violate the law” and that LA did nothing to cause the dust. In an earlier statement, APCD Director Ted Schade said state of the art monitoring methods approved by LADWP “show that controls are required on an additional 2.9 square miles of dried lake bed” and that LA caused the dust. Schade said DWP signed an agreement which included this process.
The big LA Times ad says LADWP has had to spend $1.2 billion on the lake clean-up. Ted Schade earlier pointed out that over a 25-year period, the cost of controlling Owens Lake pollution is about $2,000 per ton. The air quality district in LA, he said, has set a feasible cost effectiveness limit of $5,300 per ton for particulate matter control in its area. Schade said, “If Owens Lake were located in the San Fernando Valley, instead of the Owens Valley, LADWP would be expected to spend up to $5 billion to control the problem.”
The LA Times ad complains that customers are paying two months of an average water bill for APCD lawyers and bureaucrats. What the ad doesn’t say is that LADWP’s refusal to abide by its signed agreements and clean-air laws, according to local officials, has caused the legal fight, the need for regulation and the money to pay for it.
The ad alleges that Ted Schade has forced DWP to use fresh water to keep down the dust. The facts are DWP could use water, vegetation or gravel to control the dust or develop another method. The polluter has responsibility to develop control methods.
Schade said LA would apparently prefer to pick legal fights and delay responsibilities. He had earlier said DWP Manager Ron Nichols told APCD Board Chair Supervisor Larry Johnston that “The cost of legal fees pales in comparison to the cost of dust controls.”
It’s an issue, said Schade, of “an historic problem LADWP has with its credibility in keeping promises.”
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Integrity has always been in short supply with the Los Angeles DWP. If they had any at all, they would write a blank check for the clean-up, present it to Inyo County and say…
“There it is…take it”. (intended for those who know the history)
The Dry Lake DWP argument is another type of diversion to grab our attention while they drain, dry up, and kill the rest of the Owens Valley.
A diversion to divert all the rest.
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LADWP has no one to blame but themselves. Even though they were ordered to clean up the lake, they waited and waited and waited until the gun to their head was ready to be fired, and THEN they rushed to start the cleanup. Because of this, they squandered years of preparation time, and ended up throwing together anything they could to satisfy their requirements. It was far more expensive than it needed to be and now they are whining because it cost too much. It’s so much easier to blame someone else rather than take responsibility. I have no sympathy for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
On my drive to work this AM it looks like Owens Lake still has lots of dust blowing up.
But most of the dust is not coming from the lake bed but the shore line.
Without the controls put in place on the lake bed it would have been real bad.
Please DWP keep your commitments and finish all areas that need mitigation.
It’s time to file a class action lawsuit agianst DWP . A blind man can see they are not acting in good faith . DWP is harming our health and property values. We won’t mention what they are doing to our environment.
HEHE … the land of LA doesn’t want to pay for what it did .. That is, to say LADWP is trying to incite its citizens and water consumers to help them get out of their responsibilities.
How many uniformed readers will fall for this as they do for anything people say to them, certain people purporting to telling the truth, when in fact it is all lies.
And how many will see fall for it? We have seen the same thing happen with environmental issues.
True Big Al,
But you forget the 99% ers in LA just want the water and don’t really care much about the environment! Water is what LA wants at all (or no) cost.