By Deb Murphy

The Technical Group approved two resolutions dealing with the pumping test of Well 385 in the Five Bridges area Thursday morning, 18 months after this whole mess started.

The resolutions adopted the monitoring and management plan for the test and amended the 1999 revegetation plan to allow the well turned back on for that test. The action put in motion the settlement agreement between Inyo County and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reached last month.

The point the County had been trying to make over those 18 months of long Tech Group meetings interrupted by endless caucuses, repeated arguments and legal action was simple: the LADWP can’t unilaterally make changes to revegetation plans without Tech Group agreement.

Why didn’t LADWP just amend the reveg plan more than a year ago and avoid the frustration? Nobody at the County could answer that one.

Owens Valley Committee president Mary Roper read a formal statement at the start of the meeting. She pointed out the plan amendment “constituted discretionary action” and as such required compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.

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