Pact Requires Water Release in Owens River

Environmentalists and the City of Los Angeles have filed a court agreement that calls for the L.A. Department of Water and Power to start releasing water into parched stretches of the Owens River by the fall of next year.

The deadlines represent the latest attempt to get the city to move ahead with a long-standing plan to return water to lower portions of the river, which were sucked dry by water diversions 90 years ago.

“This is a compromise,” said Laurens Silver of the California Environmental Law Project, which represents the Sierra Club in legal actions filed against the city by the state attorney general’s office and environmental groups. “It’s an interim measure to put the city under a court order so we get things done.”

Under the agreement, which must be approved by a Superior Court judge, the DWP says it will finish environmental reviews of the project by June, start releasing water into the lower Owens by September 2005 and gradually increase flows to the desired level by April 2006.

To do that, the city will modify the original diversion facility built by William Mulholland in 1913 to send the river’s water into the Los Angeles aqueduct for a 200-mile trip south to city faucets. Some water will instead be allowed to flow down a 62-mile stretch of the Owens that today amounts to little more than a trickle. There would be a waist-deep flow in a narrow channel -- enough, it is hoped, to restore trees, fish and wildlife to a river ecosystem sacrificed to L.A.’s thirst.

At the end of the 62 miles, just above the Owens lakebed, the river flow will be pumped into the aqueduct, minus evaporation and water soaked up by vegetation.

“There’s a lot of milestones we’ve all agreed to, and we intend on meeting them,” DWP spokesman Chris Plakos said. “We’re really excited in moving forward. This project is virtually unprecedented in the country.”

Los Angeles first agreed in 1991 to return water to the river as a way of offsetting increased groundwater pumping in the Owens Valley. In 1997, the city consented to a 2003 deadline, which it missed, leading to more legal battles. In December, the state attorney’s general office filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Department of Fish and Game and State Lands Commission to compel the city to act.

“The people of Owens Valley have waited a long time -- too long -- to see this project completed,” state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said in a statement. “My office intends to remain vigilant to ensure LADWP meets all the agreement’s timelines.”

Donald Mooney, attorney for the Owens Valley Committee, said that if the DWP missed the new deadlines, it would find itself back in court.

“If they don’t meet these dates, we will go to court and ask it to impose some sanctions,” he said, adding that he was looking forward to kayaking down the river in a few years.