Owens Valley Water Pact Refined, New Protections Added

Quietly this time, the city of Los Angeles and Inyo County on Tuesday disclosed a new plan to end more than 50 years of feuding and legal skirmishes over the river of water channeled south from the Owens Valley.

Last March, the two rivals ceremoniously unveiled what officials on both sides called an historic pact to settle lawsuits and guide future ground-water pumping. In essence, the pact was to ensure that Los Angeles could increase its pumping while promising environmental guarantees to Owens Valley residents.

However, the Inyo County Board of Supervisors could not sell the pact to its constituents, many of whom still blame Los Angeles for ruining farmlands and turning Owens Lake--once crisscrossed by ferries--into the largest dry lake bed in California.

After a storm of protests last spring as fierce as the dust clouds that now blow off the lake bed, the Inyo officials asked the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to reopen negotiations and give more concessions.

The new agreement disclosed Tuesday is much the same, officials agreed, but contains more details on protections for Owens Valley vegetation and private wells against further damage from the DWP, which owns most of the land and water rights in the valley 250 miles north of Los Angeles.

“A lot of the wording has just been tightened up,” said Inyo County Counsel Greg James, who also runs the water department.

Unlike the March pact, which was unveiled at a press conference in Bishop attended by entourages from Los Angeles and Inyo, the new agreement was simply made available to a handful of spectators at the weekly meeting of Inyo County supervisors at the courthouse in Independence. There were no pronouncements about historic importance this time.

Inyo is the second-largest county in the United States, and locals said it could take several days for the new terms to filter out and draw any reaction. Copies are being mailed to interested residents and public meetings are scheduled later this month.

James warned, however, that Inyo County likely will not be able to reopen negotiations. If this version also proves unpopular with local residents, Inyo County’s only choice will be to take its chances in court, where both Inyo and Los Angeles have suits pending, James said.

“This is the best the county is going to get from Los Angeles,” James said. “The county has to decide whether to accept this or go back to litigation.”

One effect of the pact could be to provide the first complete environmental impact report ever on Los Angeles’ presence in the Owens Valley, which together with the Mono Lake Basin provides about 75% of the city’s water. Two previous environmental impact reports by Los Angeles were challenged by Inyo County and rejected by courts. Under the new agreement, the city and Inyo would jointly prepare the report.

As part of the renegotiated agreement, Los Angeles will be allowed to sink 15 new ground-water wells on its lands. But pumping will not be allowed to lower the water table at any privately owned wells or cause existing vegetation to weaken or die.

Mining of ground water--pumping out more than is recharged each year--will be expressly banned. The agreement requires that natural recharging patterns over 20 years be considered.

No Limit on Water

As it did in March, the agreement does not set any limit on the amount of water that Los Angeles wells can extract. Instead, all of the flows will be set by a technical committee assigned to monitor the Owens Valley environment and order specific wells shut down if damage is threatened.

Under the pact, Los Angeles will also sell off some land near Bishop, a town that has been unable to expand because it is encircled by DWP rangeland. Residents would also no longer have to pay their water bills to the DWP, an item of some annoyance locally. Collection of water bills would be turned over to local authorities.

Before the agreement takes force, Inyo County supervisors must approve it at a public meeting. Then the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners and the City Council also must approve it.