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In the Owens Valley, resentment again flows with the water

Posted by: Maven on May 16, 2009 at 10:00 am

From the Los Angeles Times:

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is quietly prospecting once again for land and water rights in the Owens Valley, sparking tense disputes among residents over the agency’s influence on their economic stability. Unlike previous battles between Owens Valley residents and the DWP, which focused on the environmental and economic damage caused by L.A.’s pumping of local water supplies, the current campaign seeks to break the agency’s grip on land the locals say is needed for commerce, hospitals, parking and affordable housing along a 112-mile stretch of Highway 395 east of the Sierra Nevada.

“Sustainable communities — that’s what they are sucking out of this place along with our water,” said Scott Palamar, a photographer who moved to Lone Pine in July after his Malibu home was destroyed by a brush fire in 2007. “The DWP only wants just enough infrastructure to support its own operations. Beyond that, they don’t seem to care.”

The trouble started when a local real estate broker learned that the DWP, which already owns 25% of the Owens Valley floor, plans to buy 100 acres of privately held stream-side property just west of Independence, the Inyo County seat, for an estimated $4 million to $5 million.

On May 6, a group of Owens Valley residents sent a petition to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles City Council urging them to force the DWP to compensate for the loss of this private land by releasing an equal amount of its own holdings elsewhere. “They are creating a net loss of private land in Inyo County and destroying our towns in the process,” said Jenifer Castaneda, a Lone Pine real estate broker and community activist who helped write the petition. “If they are going to take what little available private land there is left in the valley out of circulation, they should make an equal amount of land available in communities that are struggling to survive.”

Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

May 16, 2009 · Filed Under Eastern Sierra

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