LADWP Newsletter Says That They Have Adapted Operations to Meet 2020’s Low Runoff and Statewide Dry Conditions Los Angeles, CA (May 27, 2021) – LADWP is adapting annual operations to meet the low runoff in the Owens Valley, forecasted at a mere 55% of normal. As a result, groundwater pumping will only be 34-41% of […]
The Inyo County Water Department drafted its recommendation on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power pumping plan for the 2021-22 water year , asking the department to pump 8-percent less than its minimum of 64,600 acre-feet. Citing areas in the Owens Valley that have yet to recover from the 2012-16 drought, plus the […]
Submitted by Philip Anaya A miracle is in the making in the Owens Valley . For the first time in 48 years the Eastern Sierra has more snowpack, more runoff, than we know what to do with . Although flooding and its effects loom large in the immediate future, the miracle of 2017 are the effects […]
By Deb Murphy California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 sent a simple message to state water agencies: develop a sustainability plan or the state will. Now Inyo County has to figure out what to do with those parts of the Owens Valley Groundwater Basin that do not lie under land owned by the Los […]
The following letter was submitted by Daniel Pritchett: As a board member of the Owens Valley Committee (OVC), I was interested to read the recent (10/10/15) OpEd (attributed to Jim Yannotta) defending DWP’s program for new well construction. The OpEd pointed out: 1) DWP is investing in various techniques to reduce demand for imported water […]
Pumping the aquifer under Owens Lake to meet dust mitigation and habitat requirements has been the elephant in the room for a very long time. The question of whether groundwater extraction under the lake is governed by the Long Term Water Agreement or not may never be resolved, but pumping will be a hot topic […]
As a mitigation in the Inyo-Los Angeles Long Term Water Agreement, the County took over the town water systems in Lone Pine, Independence and Laws. These were areas that suffered severe groundwater pumping and a lowering of the water tables. The idea was to keep water rates low so residents could irrigate more. The County […]
Conversation 75 of 100 Conversations About Water: Owens Valley DWP Leases and the Long Term Water Agreement Owens Valley Rancher Mark Lacey will be the featured speaker at Conversation 75 of Metabolic Studio’s One Hundred Conversations about Water. Lacey will describe the provisions of the Long Term Water Agreement and 1991 EIR which support […]
In a 6-page letter to the Department of Water and Power, Inyo’s Water Director says LA has violated the Long Term Water Agreement with its new ranch leases because they give less water and less control over water than the Agreement allows. In the mid-60s, when Los Angeles built the second aqueduct in the Owens […]
Seventeen years after Inyo County and the Department of Water and Power signed the Long Term Water Agreement, DWP has not completed many mitigation projects listed in a 1991 Environmental Impact Report and designed to make up for widespread damage done by groundwater pumps and abandoned agricultural fields to supply water to the second aqueduct. […]
Those who have witnessed past decades in the Owens Valley have seen trees die, orchards disappear, meadows turn to scrub brush, springs dry up, groundwater plummet, and the Owens Lake vanish. In spite of those facts, Department of Water and Power Aqueduct Manager Jim Yannotta told Sierra Wave Media that “essentially the Owens Valley looks […]
The Inyo Supervisors recently sent in comments of concern for environmental impacts from the Department of Water and Power’s proposed solar project, and now everyone can continue to comment through November 4th. DWP extended their comment deadline. It is DWP that will complete an Environmental Impact Report on the Southern Owens Valley Solar Ranch Project […]
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