Looking back at the history of the Los Angeles Aqueduct
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2008 at 10:58 pmFrom Westside Today, a retrospective article about how Mulholland brought water to Los Angeles:
Prior to 1913, the Los Angeles River was the primary source of water for our City of the Angels. In 1867 the privately owned City Water Company was awarded a 30-year contract to distribute river water efficiently. In 1878, the company hired a 23-year-old man to work as a zanjero, keeping the main water course from the river clear of trash and plant growth. He was an Irishman who didn’t have a formal education, but did have a deep love of learning and an abiding thirst for knowledge. His name was William Mulholland.
Mulholland learned engineering by reading and experience. He worked tirelessly in the field, leaving the desk work to others. He built an impressive reputation for himself in Los Angeles. He was known for his integrity and honesty.
You can read the rest of this article from Westside Today by clicking here.
Mayor presides over water release ceremony for the Lower Owens River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 19, 2008 at 7:49 amFrom the Inyo County Register:
His visit to the Owens Valley began on dry ground for City of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, standing alongside the Lower Owens River. Before long, though, the mayor had slipped on a personal-flotation-device and stepped into a canoe. Villaraigosa’s travels that day began by riding the rails in his hometown of Los Angeles. The mayor had boarded an L.A. subway beneath the streets of the city to bring attention to the viability of that form of mass transit. Next, the mayor boarded a helicopter for his trip to the Eastern Sierra to inaugurate higher flows being released into the Lower Owens River. Then, making his way by foot from the landing site, Villaraigosa crossed the L.A. Aqueduct Intake that had diverted waters from the lower stretches of the river for nearly a century.
Villaraigosa presided over a water release ceremony at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday that marked the initial increase of water from the Lower Owens River Projects’ mandated 40 cubic feet per second (cfs) to a peak flow of 200 cfs into the long-dry river channel. The additional water is designed to approximate a “seasonal high water flow” in order to recharge the southern 63 miles of the river’s path toward the Owens Lake.
The ceremony was attended by David Nahai of the DWP, Inyo County Supervisor Richard Cervantes, and representatives from the Owens Valley Committee & the Sierra Club. Said the Mayor at the ceremony:
“Today also marks our two communities (L.A. and the Owens Valley) coming together, as we haven’t always been friendly over the years,” said Villagraigosa. “L.A. was a desert and we took your water and made it into an oasis – but we also made this oasis into a desert. Today, as we work together, we (L.A.) will do what we must to continue this trend toward improvement. We want to work with you not because of lawsuits, but because we wish to do what is right to make environmental strides within the Owens Valley.”
Echoing Villaraigosa’s assessment of past problems between L.A. and the Owens Valley and his desire for better future relations, Inyo County Supervisor Richard Cervantes said, “We must build a closer partnership, a team, in order to work effectively together and bring nature back into a healthy state. I believe what we are doing here today makes a strong statement about increased cooperation.”
The Mayor then took a personal tour of the river by paddle boat to view the river and the restoration efforts. Get the rest of this story from the Inyo County Register by clicking here.
Mayor lets Owens River sweep him away for Valentines Day
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 16, 2008 at 8:16 amFrom the Owens Valley Committee:
OWENS RIVER INTAKE, INYO COUNTY, CA–Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa let the Lower Owens River sweep him off his feet Wednesday, February 13.
After presiding over a ceremony to celebrate the beginning of the first artificial seasonal habitat flow since the river’s official rewatering in December 2006, the mayor climbed into a yellow canoe and rowed gently downstream. Many others joined him in a small celebratory flotilla, including Mark Bagley, local Sierra Club representative, and David Nahai, new DWP general manager, who sat elbow-to-elbow at the bow of a drift boat.
The Lower Owens River Project partly mitigates environmental damage from groundwater pumping from 1970 to 1990. Yearly seasonal habitat flows–including this, the first for the newly rewatered river–are meant to imitate natural flooding by redistributing muck from the river bottom, helping to distribute and germinate seeds from riparian vegetation such as willows and cottonwood, and recharging groundwater tables in the flood plain, among other purposes.
Several speakers at the ceremony wryly acknowledged that mitigation projects for Los Angeles’ water exports from the Owens Valley have often been a labor of law more than a labor of love.
“We recognize that Los Angeles was a desert before we came to the Owens Valley and that the Owens Valley was an oasis,” the mayor said. “….Today we say we’re going to share the prosperity….We’re here to be the neighbors we should have been one hundred years ago.”
Mayor visits Lower Owens River as more water released to mimic seasonal flooding
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 14, 2008 at 9:33 amI’m leaving this picture big because the camera used here is absolutely incredible. From the Los Angeles Times:
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa toured the Lower Owens River by paddle-power Wednesday, leading half a dozen canoes and drift boats along a mile-long stretch of the rehabilitated waterway east of the High Sierra.
Under cloudy skies, local elected officials and environmentalists floated close behind Villaraigosa as he and a guide paddled their canoe through the tule-lined channel that began flowing again in 2006 as part of what is widely considered the most ambitious river restoration effort attempted in the West.
The 62-mile-long river was left nearly dry in 1913 when its water was redirected into the Los Angeles Aqueduct to help Los Angeles grow into a metropolis. The Department of Water and Power redirected some water back into the channel starting Dec. 6, 2006, and DWP General Manager and CEO David Nahai was among those floating on the river Wednesday.
It took the group about 40 minutes to complete the trip about 1:30 p.m. and disembark near a helicopter, which whisked Villaraigosa back to Los Angeles.
“This is a great opportunity to see and feel this restored habitat, which we had desecrated for 100 years,” Villaraigosa said after stepping out of his canoe. “I feel gratified.”
You can read the full text of the Los Angeles Times article by clicking here.
A lot more information on the event from the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power press release:
OWENS VALLEY, CALIF. - Marking a milestone in one of the world’s largest river ecosystem restoration projects, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Inyo County government officials released the first seasonal water flow into the Lower Owens River today, then toured the channel by boat to witness its remarkable rebirth.
“Today, along these banks, we see the initial fruits of an historic turnaround story beyond any that Hollywood could dream up,” Mayor Villaraigosa said. “Where the river channel lay cracked and dry for almost 100 years, in a year the flow of water has nurtured an entire river ecosystem back to life.”
During the seasonal water release, flows will increase from 40 cubic feet per second to 200 cubic feet per second and then ramp down again. The annual two-week process emulates natural seasonal flows to flood the riverbanks, and promotes growth of willows, cottonwood trees and other riparian habitat.
Following the seasonal water flow release at the Los Angeles Aqueduct Intake, Mayor Villaraigosa, L.A. City and Inyo County officials, environmental and Owens Valley representatives toured a 1½-mile section of the river on canoes and drift boats to observe the river restoration progress.
Since the first continuous flows were released into the Lower Owens River on Dec. 6, 2006, biologists, recreational enthusiasts and others are reporting that the river ecosystem restoration has surpassed expectations. In particular, a strong fishery has already colonized the river with large mouth bass, catfish, carp and bluegill — a hallmark of the project’s success, since one of the key goals of the LORP is to improve the fishery for recreational fishing.
“The success of the LORP demonstrates the commitment of the City of Los Angeles and Department of Water and Power to restoring the Owens Valley ecosystem and to good stewardship of these lands for the benefit of the environment and the people of the Owens Valley,” said David Nahai, LADWP’s CEO and general manager.
Mayor Villaraigosa scheduled to visit the Lower Owens River tomorrow as seasonal water release begins
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 12, 2008 at 7:28 amFrom the Inyo County Register:
The Lower Owens River will begin receiving increased water flows next week in a scheduled “seasonal runoff” phase. The Lower Owens River will also begin receiving increased attention next week, thanks to the mayor of Los Angeles’ hands-on participation.
L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will travel to the Owens Valley on Wednesday, Feb. 13 to participate in a water release ceremony and to take a Lower Owens River inspection tour. Villaraigosa will begin his day in the valley at the same spot where he stood 14 months ago.
It was on Dec, 6, 2006 that Villaraigosa stood alongside the Los Angeles Aqueduct Intake facility for a ceremony that marked water flowing into the Lower Owens River for the first time since it was diverted into the L.A. Aqueduct 96 years ago. Now, just more than a year later, Inyo County water officials, LADWP staff, outdoor enthusiasts and monitoring environmentalists are indicating some positive changes have already started to occur in the long-dry river channel.
The court-ordered restoration project mandated flows in the Lower Owens River of 40 cubic feet per second, and a review of the monitoring records show that the flow has met or exceeded the requirement at each of 16 monitoring sites. Another requirement was the mimic the seasonal flows of the river by releasing extra water to simulate snow melt. The flows will gradually be ramped up to 200 cfs and maintained for at least 24 hours before being ramped down to 40cfs.
The article says this of the mayor’s visit, which will include a boat ride down part of the river:
While Villaraigosa is a busy mayor of a very large city, LADWP officials indicate it certainly didn’t take any “arm-twisting” to get the high-profile politician to schedule a visit to the Owens Valley. Not at all,” LADWP Public Relations Manager Chris Plakos said. “In fact, this all originated with a request from the mayor’s office. Having been here for the opening of LORP, Mayor Villaraigosa indicated he wanted to observe some of the enhancements to the Lower Owens River he’d been told about.” According to Plakos, Villaraigosa “specifically wanted a chance to see personally how things have changed during this past year. So, he and a number of his guests will be taking an inspection tour of a section of the Lower Owens River by boat.”
Drift boat fishing on the upper Owens has been a popular choice for local and visiting anglers for some time. Villaraigosa will be learning something about the appeal of an oar-powered outing on the Owens River. Local fly-fishing consultant and guide Brandon Wood, the owner of Owens River Fly Shop in Bishop, is scheduled to pilot one of his drift boats with Villaraigosa aboard to provide the visiting L.A. dignitary the up-close and personal perspective of the changing river corridor he seeks.
Others in the visiting entourage will also be taking to the water following the flow-release ceremony, “to better comprehend the important efforts that are ongoing to revitalize this important environmental asset to the Owens Valley,” Plakos explained.
Get the rest of the story from the Inyo County Register by clicking here.
The ‘Terminator’ tackles Lower Owens River vegetation
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2008 at 7:24 amFrom Lawrence Journal World & News (Kansas, I think):
Noxious species sprouting in the bed of a California river diverted nearly a century ago are proving to be no match for a plant-eating device devised by a former Lawrence city commissioner. Known as “The Terminator,” the machine designed by Dave Penny of De Soto-based Masters Dredging Co. recently finished tearing out and chewing up cattails and other plants that had been blocking progress on a $24 million river-restoration project northeast of Los Angeles.
Without the Kansas-born buoyant weed whacker, the free flow of the Lower Owens River might not have resumed, and the wildlife now residing there — birds, fish and other animals — might never have returned.
And the clearing work cost less than $150,000, the “project demonstration” charge that Penny accepted to get his technology in the field and noticed by people who need it. “It’s a very specialized business,” said Penny, president and CEO of Masters Dredging. “The jobs are very spectacular, but it’s not like we’re mass-producing these things.”
The thing formally is known as the Aquaplant Shredder: a steel, flat-bottom boat powered by a 300-horsepower Caterpillar engine that drives two front cutters designed to grind through the most dense vegetation Mother Nature can dream up.
To read the rest of this story from the Lawrence Journal World & News, click here.
Eastern Sierra Land Trust adds 480-acre parcel around Mono Lake to the list of protected lands
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 29, 2008 at 9:37 am
From Bishop’s Inyo County Regsiter:
Longtime residents of the Eastern Sierra recall Mono Lake’s level dropping ever-lower, its water siphoned off to quench Southern California’s rapacious thirst. Turning that tide required an unrelenting effort spearheaded by the Friends of Mono Lake, whose commitment protected nature.
Now a new friend has committed to protecting nature in the Mono Basin. New landowner Ted Yednock recently helped ensure open spaces in the hills to the north and east above Mono Lake will remain undeveloped by working with the Eastern Sierra Land Trust to secure a conservation easement. “It was an interesting project for us,” ESLT Lands Director Karen Ferrell-Ingram said, “as the prior landowners came to us asking if we knew someone that might buy their property, and preserve the property in its natural state.”
Mr.Yednock plans to use the 480-acre parcel for a family retreat, leaving most of it undistrubed. This has benefits for the public as well as Mr. Yednock:
“In addition to acquiring a beautiful place to enjoy time spent with family,” Ferrell-Ingram said, “Mr. Yednock will also enjoy significant federal tax breaks in exchange for his willingness to enter into this conservation easement.”
According to the ESLT, each conservation easement requires a very individual approach to reach a common goal. “While every easement we oversee will have some distinct aspect,” said Ferrell-Ingram, “each of them is created to protect the land from significant development and the conservation mandate remains with the deed to that land, so it lasts forever.”
To read the full text of the story from the Inyo County Register, click here.
Mono Lake Committee posts snowy pictures of Mono Lake
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 25, 2008 at 7:06 am
From the Mono Lake Committee website, some beautiful pictures of Mono Lake after this recent snowstorm.
The area received 40 hours of continuous snow; more snow than the Mammoth Lakes area, due to the effects of the lake on local weather patterns.
See more pictures by clicking here to visit the Mono Lake Committee website.
Audit finds more overbilling on the Owens Valley dust mitigation project
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 19, 2008 at 7:56 amFrom the Los Angeles Daily News:
The Department of Water and Power’s primary construction company for dust-mitigation work in the Owens Valley, along with a related firm, overbilled or was overpaid more than $7 million, according to a recently released audit. The bulk of the work was on three construction contracts that were awarded for about $126 million, but grew to $162 million before the work was completed, according to the audit by GCAP Services Inc. Some of the construction work was overseen by CH2M Hill, the Denver-based engineering firm that a previous audit concluded overbilled at least $3.3 million on a $96 million contract for the project.
Costs have soared for the Owens Valley dust-mitigation work, from an estimated $120 million to the $415 million range. The most recent audit found that Barnard Construction Co. Inc. of Bozeman, Mont., was paid to repair faulty pipes and compensated for several change orders when the work was actually part of the original contract.
The Owens Lake Farm Management Team, a consortium of firms including Barnard Construction, was found by auditors on one contract to have charged rates about 10percent higher than rates submitted in its proposal. Barnard Construction officials did not return calls for comment.
DWP General Manager David Nahai said that they had not yet determined the amount of repayment that will be sought from the companies involved. He also agreed that while some changes have been made, more needs to be done.
Auditors said commissioners have tried to establish clearer change-order processes, for instance, but that staff members were unsure about the new policies and weren’t readily able to locate the most current version. “Use of a streamlined change order is critical to cost containment,” the audit said.
Nahai called that finding “obviously perturbing,” and said additional reforms are needed, possibly including a separate contract administration unit that would be insulated from decisions on contract awards. He said even if improper change orders noted by auditors were approved by department staffers, those oversights didn’t necessarily exonerate the company. “Just because my door is open doesn’t mean someone has the right to walk in and take my furniture; even if we find the department could be more vigilant, that doesn’t mean a contractor has some kind of legal or moral right to take advantage of the trust the DWP vested in the contractor,” he said.
To read the full text of this article from the Los Angeles Daily News, click here.
Lower Owens River restoration project ‘entrhalls’ local residents; “I never thought I would live long enough to see this” says one man
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 11, 2008 at 11:19 pmFrom the New York Times:
What Los Angeles took a century ago — a 62-mile stretch of river here in the parched Owens Valley — it is now giving back.
One of the largest river-restoration projects in the country has sent a gentle current of water meandering through what just a year ago was largely a sandy, rocky bed best used as a horse trail and barely distinguishable from the surrounding high desert scrub.
Mud hens dive for food. A blue heron sweeps overhead. Bass, carp and catfish patrol deep below. Some local residents swear they have even seen river otters. So much reedy tule has sprouted along the banks, like bushy tufts of hair, that officials have called in a huge floating weed whacker, nicknamed the Terminator, to cut through it and help keep the water flowing — a problem inconceivable in years past. [Aquafornia note: click here for link to weed whacker story.]
The river, 2 to 3 feet deep and 15 to 20 feet across, will not be mistaken for the mighty Mississippi. And an economic boon promised to accompany the restoration has yet to materialize.
Yet the mere fact that water is present and flowing in the Lower Owens River enthralls residents nearly 100 years after Los Angeles diverted the river into an aqueduct and sent it 200 miles south to slake its growing thirst. “This is infinitely better than before,” said Keith Franson, a kayaker pumping up his boat on the banks this week and preparing to explore a stretch of the renewed river. “You got birds, herons, terns, all sorts of wildlife coming back in because life is coming back in the river.”
Francis Pedneau, a lifelong Owens Valley resident who had sparred with Los Angeles city officials over access to fishing sites, said word was spreading among fishing enthusiasts about new spots along the river. Mr. Pedneau said he had actually caught fewer bass this past season, “probably because the schools are more spread out now.” But Mr. Pedneau, 69, has praise for the project, even though he, like many old-timers, is generally suspicious of Los Angeles, given the tension-filled history behind its acquiring water and land here (the inspiration for the 1974 movie “Chinatown”). “The river didn’t look anything like it does now,” he said. “I never thought I would live long enough to see this.”
To read the rest of this story from the New York Times, click here.
Simply the best website for the Lower Owens River restoration project is this LORP website, which features plenty of pictures of the project as it was being built and as it is now. Environmental documents, court rulings and other information can be found here as well. Very cool!
Owner sells Alpers Owens River Ranch property; moving fish rearing operation up to Conway Ranch
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 17, 2007 at 10:16 pmFrom the Inyo County Register:
Mono County fish rancher Tim Alpers has confirmed that he has sold Alpers Owens River Ranch and will move his fish rearing operations up the road to Conway Ranch. “Hatchery operations are basically finished at Alpers Owens River Ranch and will be closed and moved to Conway Ranch,” he said. “Our grow-out facilities will basically be duplicated at Conway Ranch.”
Alpers stressed that while recreational fishing from the ponds on his soon to be former property will no longer be available to the public, his renowned Alpers Trophy Trout will still be supplied to restaurants and various events throughout the Eastern Sierra. “All those contracts and customers will be maintained,” he said.
The sale currently in escrow, Alpers identified the buyer as the Gottwalds, the family that has owned the adjacent Arcularius property for about 10 years. According to Alpers, the Gottwald family plans to revert his property from a public to a private fly fishing retreat and recreation ranch for family, friends and associates, adding Alpers’ 210 acres to the Gottwald’s 1,000-plus acres, including a two-mile stretch of prime Owens River riparian habitat and fishing access, fly fishing ponds and handful of structures.
Alpers’ property lies just one mile south of Big Springs, the headwaters of the Owens River where the waterway bubbles to the surface and begins its long journey south through Mono and Inyo counties, flowing through springs and gathering the cool, clear water perfectly suited for raising fish. Since the land has been in his family for more than 100 years, Alpers has grown close to the property and was understandably very concerned that the new owner be committed to a respect for the land, its history and its scenic beauty.
Underscoring his conviction that the land be maintained in its mostly natural state, Alpers noted that he would have received a higher price had he sold to a developer. “Some pieces of land should not be developed and this is one of them,” he exclaimed. “They (the Gottwalds) are excellent stewards of the land, conservationists, and it was important that we keep it open land. I’ll be able to sleep at night knowing that. We should all be stewards of the land.”
To read the full text of this story from the Inyo County Register, click here.
DWP puts the ultimate weed whacker to the test on the Lower Owens River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 7, 2007 at 6:25 pmFrom the Inyo Register:
It may look like something out of a science-fiction movie, but it’s actually part of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s new maintenance plan for one of the “newest” rivers in the state. The menacing device with sharp blades protruding from its bow and stern currently winding its way up the Lower Owens River is actually nothing more than a beefed-up weed-wacker that will clear the way for higher water flows in the Lower Owens.
“The Terminator,” as it’s known, is being used by LADWP to begin trimming vegetation along the channel exactly one year after LADWP returned flows to the Lower Owens River. The vegetation trimming is important as the LADWP plans to release high seasonal water flows through the Lower Owens to mimic peak snowmelt runoff. Dense vegetation can hinder measurements of flows next spring when the LADWP begins sending 200 cubic feet per second flows through the river.
Beginning last month, LADWP crews, working with a contractor, have been using a 28-foot long boat equipped with sets of shredding blades at the bow and stern. Separate engines operate each set of blades that will get rid of cattails, tules and other vegetation in portions of the Lower Owens. The contractor will operate the Terminator, with LADWP crews working on the shore to remove the debris. “This is necessary for the maintenance”, said Public Relations Manager Chris Plakos. “You don’t want one type of vegetation to dominate if you can help it.”
And with a name like “The Terminator,” one can only hope the boat can get rid of dominant species of water vegetation, and if not, it’ll be back.
To read the rest of this article, and check out a picture of “The Terminator”, click here.
New water war brewing in Inyo County
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 23, 2007 at 7:54 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
In an arid Eastern Sierra region where people have had a keen appreciation for water since Los Angeles raided their supplies nearly a century ago, a new water war is brewing. But this time the combatants are locals: A hunting club is battling a geothermal plant for control of an aquifer beneath the southern Owens Valley’s lava flows and desert scrub.
The hunters view the aquifer as the lifeblood of their 50-year-old private club, Little Lake Ranch, and its spring-fed wetlands hugging U.S. Highway 395. Their opponent, Coso Operating Co., sees the aquifer as a storehouse of the 4,800 acre-feet of water it will need each year to continue running what it calls environmentally friendly steam-driven turbines already providing about 250,000 homes with electricity.
Coso’s hydrologists estimate the aquifer contains about 5 million acre-feet of water. But in a report to county planners, lawyers for the ranch argued that Little Lake is only about 3 feet deep and because of that, even a small decrease in water level could have serious ramifications for vegetation and wildlife.
The power plant operation, which netted $50 million as recently as 2004, also generates about $5 million in annual tax revenues and royalties for rural Inyo County. That’s about 5% of its $80-million annual budget. The median household income in the county, where about 18,000 residents are scattered across 10,000 square miles, is about $35,000, according to U.S. census figures.
In the middle are county officials who must decide whether to grant Coso’s application to build pipelines and pump water nine miles across the desert from the aquifer to the power plant, which, after 20 years in operation, is running low on well water. “It’s a tough one,” said Inyo County Administrator Ron Juliff. “If there was ever an issue that could get this valley really stirred up, this is it.”
To read the full text of this article from Los Angeles Times, click here.
Inyo County seeks postponement of Inyo/L.A. Standing Committee meeting
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 17, 2007 at 7:11 amFrom the Inyo County Register, news that Inyo County has requested a postponement of the next Inyo/L.A. Standing Committee meeting. Since the last meeting, Mary Nichols has left to head the California Air Resources Board, and David Nahai has been selected to head up DWP, and Los Angeles has yet to choose two new members for the committee. Informational packets with background information on the agenda items had not been distributed to committee members, either. Previously, committee members had decided that at least two weeks was needed to review material prior to the meeting.
From the article:
The agenda for the planned November meeting, however, was shaping up to contain only “information items,” and maybe a few discussion items, it was noted. With no mandated decisions on the docket, the Inyo Board of Supervisors said delaying the meeting would not interfere with any of the Standing Committee’s legally mandated actions. Giving the two new LADWP commissioners on the committee plenty of time to study the staff reports even on informational items was also seen as crucial to those new members being able to begin to grasp the issues facing LADWP and the county.
The tentative agenda for the next Standing Committee meeting includes the following possible items:
• A review of the Standing Committee’s duties and responsibilities. The previous committee had asked for an outline of the committee’s legally obligated duties and decisions it must make, and where the committee fits in the political and legal processes created by the Inyo/L.A. Long Term Water Agreement and other legal decisions.
• An update on the Lower Owens River Project from LADWP staff. The “new” river is flowing, but decisions are looming about the upcoming “pulse flow” later this winter that will push about 200 cubic feet of water down the river to simulate high runoff and further clear out the channel.
• A report and update on the Blackrock Waterfowl Area monitoring, and its potential flooding, which is also mandated by the most recent LORP lawsuit settlement. Additional information about the status of the LORP’s “off-river lakes and ponds” will also be presented.
• The workplans being developed to update and revise the Green Book will be presented, as will some sort of timeline for the project to revise the technical groundwater pumping and management guidelines in the Owens Valley. The county Water Department and LADWP are working cooperatively to update the Green Book, and both entities have agreed to an “interim management plan” that will simplify annual pumping for three years so staff time can be devoted to the Green Book work, not pumping plans.
• The LADWP staff requested time to discuss “water supply issues” and generally update the committee on the impacts last winter’s drought had on water exports from the Sierra.
• The “ad hoc” group’s effort to revise or find another set of compromises concerning the mandated Hines Spring mitigation project. The informal group had come up with a plan for Hines Spring involving pumped groundwater, then proposed four additional “regreening projects” to use the 1,600 acre-feet of water allocated to the mitigation effort. The Owens Valley Committee and the Sierra Club, both of which had a representative on the ad hoc group, rejected the Hines Spring plan, noting that it would take too much groundwater (940 a.f.).
• A report on the destruction caused by the Inyo Complex fires this summer on the proposed yellow-billed cuckoo project. The fires burned a large section of proposed habitat in the Baker Creek area, and the cuckoo effort, which was nearly complete, has been set back considerably. Now, a major concern is the need to possibly revegetate or restore the area before creating some sort of habitat designed to attract the rare yellow-billed cuckoo.
To read the full text of this story from the Inyo County Register, click here.
LA Aqueduct, 94 years old this week, solved water shortage back then; current conditions could bring us full circle
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 7, 2007 at 7:38 amFrom the Los Angeles Daily News:
It was 94 years ago this week that the first water flowed from the Owens Valley into the San Fernando Valley, bringing water to parched Southern California. The 233-mile-long Los Angeles Aqueduct was the realization of a vision by former Los Angeles Mayor Fred Eaton and William Mulholland, chief engineer for the city’s Water Department.
The trickle of water that soon became a gush just north of where Sylmar is today turned this part of the state from a land of farms, dependent on annual rainfall, to a land of homes and cities. “There it is. Take it,” Mulholland said tersely to city officials on Nov. 5, 1913, as he unfurled the Stars and Stripes as a signal to release the water. And with an estimated 30,000 people watching, the water began to flow.
The new water system was seen as the solution to the chronic water problem for region, which had to rely on rain - stored in reservoirs and in natural underground aquifers, accessed by wells.
In early 1904, Eaton had taken Mulholland and a bottle of whiskey on a buggy ride to the Owens Valley, where he explained his vision of a giant aqueduct that would allow Los Angeles - whose development was hemmed in by its lack of ability to supply water - to grow.
The article gives a quick history of the LA Aqueduct, and discusses some of the problems in the Delta today, concluding with this:
“The delta is a critical water resource for all of California,” [Feinstein] said at a summit in August.
With 25 million people depending on delta water, and the probability of an earthquake over 6.7-magnitude very likely in the next 30 years, “there are all indications that the delta could collapse, the water would be gone, there would be no water for drinking, there would be no water for agriculture, there would be no water for fish, marsh, ecosystems.”
And Southern California would be right back where it started before Mulholland turned the tap on 94 years ago.
To read the rest of this article from the Los Angeles Daily News, click here.
Inyo County prepares to sit down & discuss regional issues with San Bernardino County & two Nevada counties
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 5, 2007 at 9:50 amFrom the Inyo Register:
Inyo County has plenty to lose and a lot to gain by keeping abreast of what its Nevada neighbors are up to, according to Greg James, Inyo County’s special counsel for environmental law issues, and Brian Brown, owner of the China Ranch Date Farm and other holdings in and around Shoshone, and head of the Amargosa Conservancy.
The first issues, as usual, involved water.
Brown said that any increase in pumping in the Nevada side of the Amargosa Valley or the Parumph area could cause some substantial environmental damage in Southeast Inyo County. The same aquifer runs across the state line, he noted, and more pumping in Nevada could further lower that groundwater aquifer, leading to the loss of springs and seeps in Inyo County, and maybe even push the Amargosa River back underground instead of having it flow across the landscape for a nice stretch as one of the few water-filled rivers in the Mojave Desert. Brown has been leading the effort, backed by Inyo County, to obtain a federal Wild and Scenic River designation for the Amargosa.
The Nevada counties have their reasons for wanting to talk to their neighboring California counties as well:
…both Clark and Nye counties are suspicious of any water pumping that might take place in Inyo County. James said Nye County and Parumph are “very worried” about the 17,000 acres of private land in Inyo County at the border, and any attempt to develop that land using groundwater.
The Charleston View development, which proposed thousands of units in the desert in Inyo County near the Nevada line, was assailed by the Nevada State Engineer, who said any groundwater pumping in Inyo would constitute a water grab, and Nevada would object strenuously. The housing project never got off the ground, but James said the fears it generated in Nevada over the shared aquifer between the two states are still very real.
To read the full text of this article from Bishop’s Inyo County Register, click here.
Lower Owens River Project benefits from new technology
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 18, 2007 at 2:49 amFrom the Inyo County Register:
Monitoring the progress of the Lower Owens River has become a high-tech marriage of old-fashioned legwork and new-fangled computer technology.
Crews laced up their boots, took bottles of water, digital cameras, GPS locators and data sheets and then made three laps around the 62 river miles of “new” river. While walking a total 187 miles in 12 days, the crews literally took a “snapshot” of the conditions along the riverbanks, in the river and within eye shot. The resulting data was then layered over the top of a Google Earth map of the river stretch to allow managers and the public to pinpoint everything from stands of new willows to roads to fire rings. “It’s cool, but it’s also a tool,” Chris Howard, the computer and data expert at the Inyo County Water Department, said of the linking of ground data with satellite maps.
The Inyo County Board of Supervisors was impressed by the gritty gathering of raw data, and maybe even a bit dazzled by the “gee whiz” impact of seeing a satellite camera zero in on the Owens Valley from space.
The result of the first annual “Rapid Assessment Survey” (RAS) “will be a very important component for management of the Lower Owens River Project,” said Tom Brooks, director of the county Water Department. The data will provide managers with the kind of information they need to direct staff time, resources and money to the most important and critical tasks when they start to decide on the 2008 LORP work plan, said Brooks. “I was very impressed with the level of work” on every aspect of the RAS, said Brooks.
To read the full text of the story from the Inyo County Register, click here.
Mono Lake recovering in spite of drought
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 1, 2007 at 8:38 amFrom AFP, a story regarding Mono Lake’s recovery:
Today … even in the face of a drought that has cost the western United States several streams and rivers, Mono Lake has recovered to a level of around 6,383 feet (1,945 meters), according to Geoffrey McQuilkin the executive director of the Mono Lake Committee.
“The lake is definitely recovering now,” McQuilkin said. “We’re seeing lots of interesting things happen.” The island which had become connected to the land is an island once more, McQuilkin said. “We’ve seen an increase in numbers of the birds that house there,” he said.
McQuilkin said the successful efforts to preserve the lake and its eco-systems were attributable to the changing the water consumption habits of Los Angeles residents.
Prior to 1994, Los Angeles authorities were allowed to take some 90,000 acre-feet of water per year from Mono Lake’s tributaries. Now they are only allowed to pump 16,000 acre-feet.
Angelenos, who use on average of 140 gallons of water every day, have been forced to adapt.
David Nahai president of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power commission admitted that ensuring enough water to meet demand was a constant challenge. “I’d be lying if I said that this was an easy process,” Nahai said. But today, I think we’re quite proud of our achievements.”
To read the full text of this story from AFP, click here.
Owens Valley Committee challenges DWP mitigation projects
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 20, 2007 at 1:40 pmFrom the Inyo County Register:
A list of water projects hammered out during a period of probably unprecedented cooperation and compromise could be in jeopardy after one group objected to one aspect of one proposed project. The Owens Valley Committee board of directors was the first decision-making body to consider the list of projects, and the board rejected the proposal for the mandated Hines Spring mitigation project. The group did not want pumped groundwater to be the sole source of water for the mitigation project, and suggested ditch water also be used.
The OVC board’s rejection of one of the six carefully tailored, “inter-related” mitigation projects located up and down the Owens Valley could create a “ripple effect” that could lead to none of the projects being constructed, said Tom Brooks, director of the Inyo County Water Department.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will only start the environmental analysis of the six proposed projects after it has some assurances from all the affected parties that those projects are the ones that are acceptable and meet the goals and legal requirements mandating the mitigation work.The mitigation projects were conceived and put forth by the informal“ad hoc” group during 14 months of talks that took place instead of having the mitigation work tied into the latest lawsuit over the Lower Owens River Project. If all the entities involved in that suit do not agree to the planned mitigation projects, they might have to go to court and have lawyers and judges settle the matter for them.
To read the full text of the story from the Inyo County Register, click here.
California Infrastructure Videos on YouTube
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 16, 2007 at 9:09 pmHere’s an interesting blogsite I came across today. The blog is called Ten-B Infrastructure & Environment, and this particular post contains three videos.
The first one is an ad from Schwarzenegger’s campaign last year. The second video is a clip from the Cadillac Desert video on the Owens Valley (note: the four-video series is available through the Los Angeles public library system). BY far the most interesting is the third video is a film that was produced by Metropolitan Water District on the peripheral canal back in the 1980’s when it went before the voters.
If you have trouble loading any of the videos, try refreshing the page and then clicking on it.
To visit the Ten-B Infrastructure & Environment blog, click here.
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