State Must Review L.A.’s Mono Area Water Permits, Court Says

A state appeals court ruled in an opinion released Wednesday that the licenses of the city of Los Angeles to draw water from streams feeding Mono Lake must be reviewed by the state water board.

The decision by the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento shocked Los Angeles officials, who said the case probably will be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

The Court of Appeal reversed an earlier decision by a Sacramento Superior Court upholding Los Angeles’ current permits to divert Mono Basin water. The permits were issued in 1974.

17% of City Water Supply

Los Angeles in normal years obtains about 17% of its water supply by taking water from four streams that otherwise would feed the salt lake in the Sierra east of Yosemite National Park. Another 63% comes from the Inyo region south of the Mono Basin.

The decision threatens Los Angeles with the loss of part of the Mono water but not all of it.

The court ruled in a lawsuit filed in 1985 by three environmental organizations, which charged that the permits issued to Los Angeles to divert Mono water violate Section 5937 of the Fish and Game Code. The law, enacted in 1939, says that the builder of a dam must allow enough water to escape to maintain fish resources downstream.

Another section of the code enacted in 1953 orders Los Angeles to comply with the 1939 law.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lloyd Phillips ruled in August, 1986, that Los Angeles’ licenses for Mono water are valid on the grounds that the 1953 law did not apply to facilities already built by the city. Los Angeles’ diversions of Mono water began around 1940.

The trial court’s decision was appealed by the three plaintiffs: California Trout, the National Audubon Society and the Mono Lake Committee.

The decision was written by Justice Coleman Blease. Justice Hugh Evans and Presiding Justice Robert Puglia concurred.

“The trial court shall issue appropriate writs, commanding the water board to exercise its discretion to conduct proceedings for revocation of (Los Angeles’ water diversion licenses), subject to its authority to reissue them,” the decision concluded.

Probable Appeal

“It’s disappointing to us,” said LeVal Lund, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s chief engineer for operations in the Mono-Inyo region.

“This project has been in place since the 1940s. It means taking away some unknown amount of the water. Our probable course is to appeal to the Supreme Court, but that decision will be made by our legal people.”

The water level of Mono Lake, located on U.S. 395, has fallen about 45 feet since the transfer of water to Los Angeles began 48 years ago. Mono Lake today contains about half the amount of water it held in 1940.

For the last decade, it has been fought over by city and the environmental movement, spearheaded by the Mono Lake Committee. Conservationists want the lake stabilized near its present elevation of 6,379 feet above sea level.

The lake’s defenders scored a major legal victory in 1983 when the state Supreme Court declared that navigable water is a “public trust” and that Los Angeles’ need for Mono water must be balanced against the public’s need for the lake and its unique ecosystem. That decision still is under federal court appeal.