– Submitted by Daniel Pritchett
Supervisors must act promptly to challenge DWP
DWP released its final 2015-2016 Operations Plan last week. As expected, it includes enormous (57%) reductions in Owens Valley irrigation water. Under the Inyo LA Water Agreement (LTWA), these cuts must be approved by the Standing Committee. The Standing Committee has not approved the cuts and without such approval the reductions are a flagrant violation of the LTWA.
Inyo County has yet to address this violation. It has neither notified DWP its plan is inconsistent with the LTWA, nor gone to court to seek an injunction. Inyo Supervisors have an obligation to enforce the LTWA and failure to do so is a betrayal of the public trust.
Withholding irrigation water will have devastating consequences to our agricultural economy and is not necessary: There is more than enough water in Long Valley Reservoir to supply this year’s irrigation obligations.
In addition to disclosing 57% cuts in OV irrigation, DWP’s Operations Plan discloses DWP will reduce domestic water supply in LA by less than 10%. This is not even close to Governor Brown’s mandated 25% reduction. Shared sacrifice, indeed!
For years, Inyo Supervisors have paid lip service to supporting agriculture and ranching while ignoring credible complaints of irrigation reductions in violation of the LTWA. This has to stop. Please contact your Supervisor and remind him that enforcing the LTWA is not optional and that the county must take immediate action to challenge DWP’s illegal reductions in irrigation.
Daniel Pritchett
Bishop, CA
Thanks Dan. It is time for the Inyo County Board of Supervisors to step up and not only make DWP comply with the LTWA but they them selves should be held accountable for not implementing the LTWA when violations are brought to their attention.
DWP’s true colors start creeping out again. I’ll call it Greedy Green!
In a previous letter Mr. Pritchett pointed out that: “They seem to have forgotten that the irrigation to be sacrificed is itself mitigation for previous “unshared sacrifice” inflicted by DWP.” Exactly, LA DWP wants to us to double down on our “share” of unmitigated sacrifice while they play a shell… Read more »
Thank you Mr. Pritchett. It may very well be that the County needs to make a formal demand of the City before the clock runs out or get an agreement from LADWP to waive timelines. The LTWA is like most other agreements in that the enforcement mechanisms requires timeliness. Otherwise… Read more »
The Sierra Wave story “Update from Standing Committee” dated May 11, 2015, http://sierrawave.net/34666/update-from-standing-committee-meeting/ contains the report of Inyo County’s efforts with respect to the Ranchers need for irrigation water . “In a Committee structure that requires agreement between the City and the County , Los Angeles voted no on Inyo’s… Read more »
1.) The Inyo/LA Standing Committee will meet June 4th and irrigation will be on the agenda. 2.) April 28th Inyo County sent a letter to Los Angeles describing the irrigation cutoff as a, “flagrant violation” of the Long-term Water Agreement. 3.) LA can conserve more water and they will. They… Read more »
I love it!! As soon as folks start to question there govt. Someone runs to their defense and hurls insults of being misinformed. Someone disagrees and there misinformed. The letter to the editor was fact and since you could not attack his points you throw out your meaningless stats as… Read more »
Is 49,000 AF of irrigation water, what Ranchers receive in a normal year ? Does everyone in California have to reduce their water consumption by 25% ? Jim Yannotta say that the maximum amount of water that they could make available for irrigation this year was 32,500 AF ? Did… Read more »
After watching our Senators fast track a trade bill which no one can say what’s in it, or they will be arrested. After watching a former Sec. Of state destroy emails and watching the IRS commissioner do the same. See the pattern here? No one in Govt. Cares about law… Read more »
You forgot about Loris Lerner taking the 5th when asked questions about the job she was hired and paid to do. The lady should be have been fired, lost her pension and arrested. It’s one thing to claim the 5th in a criminal proceeding but she was only being asked… Read more »