For Better or Worse, Owens Valley Lives With DWP : Eastern Sierra: In a rocky relationship, residents learn to take the good with the bad.

In wet years or dry, in recessions or booms, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power occupies a special place in the Owens Valley.

Everywhere.

To some, the city’s DWP seems an overbearing landlord, but by owning most of the land it not only protects its access to L.A.’s largest water supply but also protects the valley from runaway development and agriculture, and helps keep the region the way residents and visitors want it. It’s deeper than a love-hate relationship. The DWP is part of the Eastern Sierra fabric.

Phil Pister is a retired California Department of Fish and Game fisheries biologist who is now a resident conservationist, philosopher and letter writer. Pister has always said, “The only thing worse than the Department of Water and Power being in the Eastern Sierra would be if it weren’t here.”

This is more about fish than water. The residents include many people who work for the DWP, which is among the top five employers in the valley. They, too, regard it as their home. Visitors--most from L.A.--regard it as their playground. They all are part of the DWP’s constituency, sharing a passion for the great outdoors, and in that they share the soul of the Eastern Sierra.

Bob Wilson, the Northern District Engineer in charge of the DWP’s operations in the region, says: “We’ve been committed to multiple use of our lands up here . . . a balance between that and our operating needs.”

It may not seem that way when people gripe about the way Crowley Lake--which the DWP owns--is run, or when a powerhouse pipe breaks and the DWP desperately prevents water from returning to the Owens Gorge, once a trophy trout fishery.

But could it be that wonderful things for fishing are happening in the Eastern Sierra? And that the DWP is part of them?

CROWLEY LAKE

It was the crown jewel of the Eastern Sierra when fishing was at its peak. Because it was blessed with a bounty of big German brown trout, fishermen ignored the sparse landscape, put up with a lack of comforts and conveniences and went along with the rigid personal-boat safety inspections they regarded as nuisances.

Then, the fishing declined in indirect proportion to the rise in complaints--not necessarily about the fishing, which is improving, but about the way the L.A. Department of Recreation and Parks operates the lake on a lease from the DWP.

This year the DWP notified Rec and Parks that its lease would be terminated Nov. 15 and issued a request for proposals from private concessionaires. Sixty of them picked up a 63-page outline, and about a dozen went on a walk-through tour May 10 to see what they might be getting into.

A lot of the complaints have come from local businessmen, whose fortunes are reflected in Crowley’s business, which has slid from a peak of $277,300 gross revenue in 1985 to $187,000 last year. Most of the revenue comes from admission fees, boat rental and boat permit sales, and rental of dock space to owners of private boats. All of it goes directly to Rec and Parks’ general fund in Los Angeles.

Jane Rasco, Rec and Parks’ assistant general manager in charge of the Camping Section, said: “I would concede that not all of it goes back to Crowley Lake. . . . (But) it’s very hard for us to get capitalization up there. The City Council has given us some money.”

Dan Paranick, a Mono County supervisor who owns the Crowley Lake General Store, said: “We’re here all the time, so we hear all the complaints, day in and day out, (about the) fee structure, the facilities, the water quality.

“Fish and Game’s been very responsive . . . working real hard on the fishing conditions of the lake. DWP’s been very responsive to the water quality. The only people that have been unresponsive has been Rec and Parks. One of the concerns has been the over-regulation of the lake.”

Martha Miklaucic, manager of the Bishop Chamber of Commerce down the hill, said: “We get complaints--very strong complaints over the last two years, especially, when the rates have been increased and the facilities have not been improved. The state of Crowley Lake is directly linked to the perception of the Eastern Sierra and Bishop. Fishermen would like Crowley to be well maintained.”

Although few trophy fish are caught these days, the fishing is good and should get better with intense efforts by Fish and Game and CalTrout, the active sportsmen’s lobby. In the 1950s, when the lake earned its reputation, DFG creel surveys indicated that anglers caught 0.2 fish each per hour on the opening weekends. The rate peaked at 1.1 from the mid-’70s to mid-’80s and has held at 0.8 the last two years.

Jim Edmondson, regional director for CalTrout, said, “That lake is so rich it’s unbelievable.”

But about those facilities. . . .

“Have you been there?” Wilson asked.

With a lake of 8.2 square miles, there are no developed campgrounds, no snack bars, one public restroom (but 18 portable toilets), few trees, little grass and no paved parking areas. To some, Rec and Parks’ heart hasn’t been in running Crowley.

“We feel it is a public service,” Rasco said.

The rent isn’t bad. Rec and Parks has been paying only $250 a year, which amounts to an administrative fee, and Wilson indicated that the DWP would be agreeable to a similar arrangement with the right bidder.

“Our object is not to receive revenue but to have a well-run operation, (to) make it into something less primitive,” Wilson said. “We want to continue all the existing services and would like to enhance them (with) reasonable campground facilities, better docks. . . . “

Among those planning to bid is Rec and Parks, whose general manager, James E. Hadaway, doubts that anyone else could do any better, given the circumstances.

“I think the problem is that the fish aren’t big enough (anymore),” Hadaway said.

He also thinks Rec and Parks has considerable leverage.

“If you consider the amount of money that we’ve taken in, and take all the costs of the city, many of which are hidden, (such as) the city being self-insured, indirect costs like administrative . . . no, we have not made money,” Hadaway said.

“But if somebody is going to bid and include all the costs of liability insurance, the same kind of lifeguard service and boat patrol service that we’ve had, I don’t see how in the world they’re going to make any money.”

The deadline for bids is July 1. Hadaway may hold a trump card. Last fall he approached the State Department of Boating and Waterways for a grant of $1,302,720 for capital improvements. Chances are good of approval, once the application clears the city’s bureaucratic maze. The money would come directly from boat-fuel taxes, not from the state’s general fund.

A grant now, of course, would be contingent on Rec and Parks receiving the new lease--and money for a private operator at Crowley would probably be a loan, not a grant. That’s Hadaway’s edge.

A meeting between officials of the two departments was held two weeks ago in Harbor City to assess the value of the assets. Dave Griffith, the Crowley Lake manager, welcomed the meeting because, he said, there has always been a communication gap between the DWP and Rec and Parks.

“It’s the first time we’ve had a chance to have any dialogue,” Griffith said.

Griffith cited recent purchases of two state-of-the-art patrol boats and other equipment. He defended the strict safety regulations and the security of having L.A. city lifeguards. Anyone familiar with Crowley knows that when the wind blows, it becomes a dangerous lake.

“If it goes over to a private concessionaire, how will that affect the safety?” Griffith asked. “If people knew the scope of this operation . . . can a private operator absorb all that?”

Others doubt the DWP’s sincerity in improving Crowley. Its request for proposals notes that “a comprehensive capital improvement program is an important element of any proposal.”

But it offers no financial aid and also states that “the maximum term (of a lease) shall be 15 years”--after which the DWP would own the improvements.

Rec and Parks owns the docks and the 110 rental boats. Rasco said it was agreed last week that if Rec and Parks fails to win the bid, the docks and boats will be evaluated by an independent appraiser and offered for sale to the new lessee at fair market value.

Hadaway said, “We would have no use for them.”

If all those terms seem unattractive to all but Rec and Parks, Wilson said, “We may find that out.”

THE OWENS GORGE

Paranick says the DWP “is tired of wearing the black hat all the time.”

The hat was never blacker than in March, when the DWP’s penstock ruptured, cutting off the supply of water from Crowley Lake to the lower of three power stations in the gorge.

It had no impact on L.A.’s water supply--only the route it would take--but instead of diverting the water into the gorge, which had been dry since the ‘50s, the DWP went to some pains to keep it dry. Rewatering the gorge would have re-established the fishery, and the Fish and Game Code would then have required the DWP to maintain it indefinitely.

Then Mono County Dist. Atty. Stan Eller--successful in other actions on behalf of fisheries--sued the DWP to rewater the gorge, as well as for past violations of the code, but the DWP already had started talking to Fish and Game a week earlier about doing that very thing.

The suit is on hold, contingent on the continued success of the talks. Friday the DWP and DFG announced jointly that flows would start next Friday. There is a tentative agreement for an interim flow of 16 cubic feet a second, the same amount already running from seepage past Long Valley Dam and incidentally sustaining a small fishery in the upper gorge. Instead of being recovered at the first power station, it will continue down the gorge.

So there will be fishing in the gorge again--perhaps next year, or whenever Fish and Game determines the proper flows required and when a sufficient population has been re-established.

BUCKLEY PONDS

When Dale Cockrell caught a six-pound bass just outside Bishop last month, the Inyo Register ran a three-column picture of him and his fish.

Big deal?

You bet. Who ever heard of bass fishing in the Eastern Sierra, a trout-fishing Mecca? What’s next--catfish?

Yep.

And why not? Some years ago, a few local residents realized that the desert floor where the Owens River runs through the valley on DWP land could be a perfect warm-water fishery. The result: Buckley Ponds, a string of man-made fishing holes paralleling the river for about 4 1/2 miles on the outskirts east of Bishop.

“Years ago it was a fishery, and a good one,” said Dick Noles, who heads the massive volunteer effort. “But over the years, the shallow water and the encroachment of tules had choked out 80% of it.”

The DWP cut the initial dikes that formed the ponds in the ‘50s. The idea then wasn’t to build a fishery but to create an area for spreading excess water and recharging the ground water supply in wet years. The area was flooded in 1965, and the ponds soon became choked with tule grass and brush.

In 1976, a Habitat Management Plan was developed among the DFG, DWP and State Department of Forestry, but digging, burning and blasting over the years failed to keep the growth at bay. Then they got serious.

Brian Tillemans, a DWP biologist, said: “All the bass fishermen said they’d like to see something done and realized the budget constraints, so they figured a huge volunteer effort could do it.”

Noles, a retired Edison engineer, took charge, joined in the planning by Tillemans, DFG fisheries biologist Curtis Milliron and DWP hydrographer Steve Keef, among others.

“This is truly a Bishop community project,” Noles said. “Fish and Game is coordinating this, and we are volunteers. We are strictly local citizens who saw an opportunity to improve one of our natural resources.”

Four ponds are completed, with two to go, thanks entirely to dozens of volunteer laborers, including DWP employees on their days off, using heavy equipment lent by DWP, Inyo County, Southern California Edison and private contractors. Ponds have been dredged and contoured, with islands for waterfowl nesting. Fish and Game has planted largemouth bass and catfish--the only significant cost of the project.

“Last summer I brought my kids down here almost every single night (and) they’d catch 15, 20 bass a night--unhook them and throw them back in. I’ve seen tons of kids down here now. It’s providing a good recreation area . . . swimming in the beach area.”

Noles said that visitors are welcome to use Buckley Ponds but stressed one request: catch and release.

“We want everybody to enjoy this,” he said. “I don’t care where they come from. But if we plant this one time, it’s not like planting the Owens River (with trout) and waiting for the hatchery to come and dump another bucket load in.

“Those fish that you catch here don’t spawn if they’re in your freezer. If you want to catch supper, go have a nice dinner on channel catfish or a nice fat bass, but don’t take home 20 bass and put 18 in your freezer or in the trash. If everybody hauls home truckloads of fish, we’ve lost it.”

Crowley, Owens Gorge, Buckley Ponds--it’s enough to make a person feel different about the DWP.

Milliron said, “DWP is the backbone of (the Buckley Ponds) project, not only in their equipment, (but) it’s their land. They deserve a real pat on the back for this.”