Owens Valley Water Talks Reach Impasse

After more than a year of trying to resolve differences over water exports to Los Angeles from the Owens Valley, talks have collapsed between the city of Los Angeles and several state agencies and environmental groups, officials said Monday.

The impasse, reached late last week, virtually ensures another court squabble over environmental concerns in the eastern Sierra Nevada basin where Los Angeles has drawn most of its drinking water since 1913.

It could also invite new challenges to a historic settlement reached in the late 1980s between the city and Inyo County that officials on both sides had hoped would end decades of legal bickering over water.

“It is frustrating to devote a lot of effort to trying to develop an agreement that would get us all out of court . . . and then find we are not out of court,” said Dennis Williams, a negotiator for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Greg James, director of the Inyo County Water Department, said the groups had been trying to resolve objections to an environmental impact report prepared by Los Angeles on its ground-water pumping operations. The report was a critical component of the Los Angeles-Inyo County settlement, which was signed in 1991 but still needs court approval.

Problems between Inyo County and Los Angeles date to the early 1900s when the city purchased water rights in the sparsely populated region and built an aqueduct that transported Owens River water 250 miles south to the San Fernando Valley.

A second aqueduct was opened in 1970 that exported pumped ground water, leading to two decades of legal battles between the city and county. When the two sides concluded their settlement in 1991, they submitted the environmental impact report for court approval. Several groups raised objections that led to the recent talks.

The state Department of Fish and Game, Sierra Club and Owens Valley Committee are among the groups that expressed concerns about the report, ranging from opposition to water levels in the lower Owens River to the adequacy of provisions protecting fish and wildlife.

James said the groups were close to reaching an agreement but that talks began to unravel after the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento issued a ruling in late January. The court rejected a city request that would have allowed Los Angeles to settle objections to the report without any court review, in essence assuring the court final say on any deal.

Los Angeles negotiators, who wanted to settle out of court, said the ruling rendered the out-of-court talks useless. At a meeting in Sacramento last week, Williams said, the groups agreed amicably to go their separate ways.

In the meantime, Los Angeles and Inyo County officials pledged Monday to abide by the conditions of their settlement, which confirms the city’s water rights in the Owens Valley but regulates the amount of water that can be pumped. Some officials expressed fears that the latest delay in formalizing the settlement could invite new challenges.

“There is some worry here,” said Inyo County Water Commissioner Thaddeus Taylor. “The door could be opened for all sorts of myriad groups and individuals to come in and have their own agendas put forward before the court.”