DWP Will Send Water to Fishery--but When? : Environment: Flow will be restored in an Eastern Sierra gorge dry for almost 40 years. The timing is in legal limbo.

Nearly 40 years after turning it into a dry canyon, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has agreed to let water flow again through a once-popular Eastern Sierra Nevada trout fishery known as the Owens River Gorge.

Just when the gurgle of Sierra water will be heard again in the dusty gorge is in legal limbo.

The Mono County district attorney and state fishery officials prefer sooner, but the giant city water utility--which has resisted pressure since March 5 to rewater the gorge--prefers later.

On March 5, a buildup of pressure ripped open an eight-foot-diameter pipeline and reopened a controversy that began in the early 1950s when Los Angeles diverted water around the gorge north of Bishop. The pipeline is part of the DWP’s extensive waterworks in the Owens Valley area, and was used to funnel water into an electric-generating plant.

When the pipeline ruptured, water spilled into the dry gorge, touching off a frantic rush by DWP crews to halt the flow, as well as a legal brouhaha over the meaning of a state law that prohibits killing off a thriving fishery.

Stan Eller, the Mono County district attorney, alleges in a lawsuit filed in April that Los Angeles sought to evade a legal provision that could require a permanent flow of water through the gorge if trout were introduced because of an accident.

Los Angeles crews installed an illegal fish screen to make sure no trout swam upstream into the gorge from Pleasant Valley Reservoir, and illegally barred state Department of Fish and Game agents from inspecting the break, Eller charged in the civil suit.

The suit also alleged that Los Angeles diverted water across the raw desert to avoid letting too much flow into the gorge, and contended that the State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento has allowed Los Angeles to violate the fisheries law for decades.

In Bishop, DWP officials have asked for more time to respond to the lawsuit. In the meantime, spokesman Chris Plakos said Monday, the department has decided in principle to restore flow to the gorge once details can be worked out with the Department of Fish and Game.

Workers began Monday to clear debris and prepare the long-dry stream bed so that fish in the downstream Pleasant Valley Reservoir will not be harmed when the gorge is rewatered, Plakos said. The first release of water is expected no sooner than mid-June, he said.

Eller and others said Los Angeles objected to putting water in the gorge for fear it would lose water for power generation. Power stations on the steep gorge and further south along the Los Angeles Aqueduct help defray the cost of the city’s water-collecting system in the Owens Valley area.

When the pipeline broke in March, there were fears that the city could lose rights to some of its water supply in the area. But the break only affected water needed for power generation, officials said later.

Eller said he patterned the suit after litigation that has forced Los Angeles to restore the flow in Mono Lake feeder creeks, where trout were reintroduced after floods in the early 1980s.

Until the current drought, Los Angeles obtained nearly 80% of its city water from the Mono Lake and Owens Valley areas. This year, because of the drought and the Mono Lake litigation, Los Angeles expects to get only 35% of its supply from the Eastern Sierra.