Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Los Angeles releasing water /Owens

I've been reading about this lately. I think today is the day that they are releasing water down the final 62 mile stretch of the Owens river. Los Angeles has been dragging their feet on this project for a long time. Just wanted to see if anybody had any reactions to this and maybe get Doug's perspective. I'm a junkie for anything related to the Owens Valley. I just found this kind of interesting, exciting, and a long-time coming. Anybody????

Yep; today's the day.

Lower Owens River awaits rush of High Sierra water
By Louis Sahagun
Times Staff Writer

7:18 AM PST, December 6, 2006

INDEPENDENCE, Calif — Hundreds of spectators led by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are expected to gather today to watch the 62-mile-long Lower Owens River ripple anew with its first surge of High Sierra water in nearly a century.

The largest river habitat restoration effort ever attempted in the West will launch with Villaraigosa's push of a button, opening a steel gate at a dam that has been diverting the Lower Owens' water into the Los Angeles Aqueduct since 1913.

Initially, the water, a modest current that will eventually grow to a carefully controlled 40 cubic feet per second, will meander along the old river channel, past clots of dusty sagebrush and the skeletal gray arms of dead cottonwood trees.

It will take at least 18 days for it to traverse the vast Owens Valley floodplain that is guarded by the snowcapped High Sierra on one side and the White-Inyo Mountains on the other and reach storage ponds on the northern edge of the dry Owens Lake.

There, four 600-horsepower pumps will suck the water up and put it back into the aqueduct for transport to Los Angeles, about 250 miles to the south.

The $39-million project is not expected to result in an increase of water rates in Los Angeles.

If all goes according to plan, within five years nature will transform the revived river's lazy loops into a lush serpentine oasis of willows and cottonwood trees, wetlands for waterfowl and shorebirds and warm water fisheries for bass, catfish, frogs and crayfish.

Owens Valley residents hope it will also boost the economies of the small towns just east of the Sierra: Bishop, Big Pine, Independence, Lone Pine and Laws.

After groundwater pumping by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power between 1970 and 1990 destroyed habitat in the Owens Valley, the department agreed in 1991 to restore the Lower Owens River to compensate for the damage.

In 2001, a lawsuit was brought by the California Department of Fish and Game, the California State Lands Commission, the Sierra Club and the Owens Valley Committee, accusing the DWP of deliberately missing deadlines for implementing the plan.

The DWP had missed at least 13 deadlines by last September, when a state Court of Appeal upheld an Inyo County Superior Court order that would ban the city from using a key Los Angeles aqueduct if it continued delaying the river restoration project.

Inyo County Judge Lee E. Cooper also imposed fines of $5,000 a day until water flows again in the Lower Owens River at a rate of 40 cubic feet per second. By today, the DWP will have paid a total $2,285,000 in fines.

The restoration comes almost exactly 93 years after 40,000 people assembled at the southern end of the gravity-powered Los Angeles Aqueduct and let out a cheer when the first Owens River water splashed into the San Fernando Valley.

Among them was Los Angeles water czar William Mulholland, who on that day — Nov. 5, 1913 — delivered one of the shortest ceremonial addresses on record: "There it is! Take it!"

Hi Just returned from the water release, more people than I expected .I walked about a mile and a half to the site looking at the cars, trucks, tags and bumper stickers a very wide range of interest displayed.
The Mayor of Los Angeles made a very honest speech of how the water that fueled the growth of LA was at the expence of Owens Valley.
The Owens Valley can be studied as a third world country, no export, little commerce other than tourism and 98 % of the land controled by Federal/State/City, and the non public work force holding only low wage service jobs for the 5 months of tourist season. Second largest county in the state with a population of 18,000 and 20% senior citizens, Southern Inyo hospital near bankrupt, youth leave and few return after college, Towns populations are declining and no land to develop commerece or housing , people living in the houses that were used at Manzanar during the war (WW2).
Tax base due to limited private property and commerece holds the County budget near poverty level and the past leadership not quite sure how to engage the Federal programs for support, we have had tours from the State and Federal grant
providers come and ask why we never apply, basic answer we are too poor to hire the staff to administer the grants or even write the grants.


So the water will run down the Valley the river basin will return ,but without land released around the towns ,leadership from the youth and some commerece, the Valley will continue to decay. Thanks Doug

Woohooo!!! One of the most important things to happen to the East Side for a long time.
Kudos to the people who made this possible.

Great! Any pictures or links to photos of the ceremony and the first water running? Heck..62 miles over 18 days...sounds like you could hike along the leading edge and document the whole thing..

Glad to hear the news..

Now...about that cable car to the summit....

Chris

Chris, you can probably get video at any of the local (L.A.) stations (KABC, KNBC, KCBS). It received widespread coverage down here too.

Thanks Doug, I hear everything your saying. I wish there was a way to turn it all around. The Owens Valley is a treasure to me and such an unpolished gem. The step taken today doesn't change a whole lot, but I was still excited to hear about it and follow the covereage.

I've had several locals tell me that there's a big silver lining to LA owning all the land - it has kept the area undeveloped, so they that do live there enjoy the open spaces rather than miles of subdivisions like those filling up the desert in Victorville. I'm not taking sides on this one, just passing on others opinions.

The Owens Valley is an example of where Economic Redevelopment would be a good thing. There are very few places in America where the poor housing stock still has high sticker prices. When you look at the quality of real estate and the dearth of economic opportunity, real estate is very expensive in the Valley. Mainly due to the scarcity of private property. Bring back the water and lets encourage economic development. It would be great to see farming return at a profitable level, but not likely in my lifetime, the land has to heal.

Ah, but a few I know that live there like it that way!

I would have to echo "As-A-Bat"'s comments. I have relatives in both Bishop and Big Pine. They both think that if LADWP hadn't raped the land years ago, that they'd be living in a metropolitan area similar to a Las Vegas. With the desert-like weather, but with an abundance of water in streams and rivers. The large areas of farmland present in 1900, would've all been redeveloped into subdivisions by now, had LA not come in and stolen the water. Now, if they can just do something to restore Owens Lake so it isn't the carcinogenic dust bowl, blowing all kinds of "nasty's" up the valley. As one drives by, the small areas of the special grass they're trying to grow, doesn't seem much more than a drop in the bucket. My .02.

I don't think the Valley would have turned into Vegas type sprawl. If the vast quantities of water had not been stolen, the area would be more productive. Towns such as Olancha, Lone Pine, Big Pine and the like would have larger populations, but not so large as to change the quality of life for the worse. I make the argument that the population is at a level that quality of life is poorer than it could be. Healthcare, libraries, and schools would benefit from a larger population. I'm not talking 50,000 to 100,000 people, I'm talking perhaps 20,000 between Olancha and Bishop. More privately owned land would make housing more affordable vis a vis wages in the area today. The lack of privately owned land makes housing costs astronomical given the opportunities to earn a living. Many people in rural America make it today by living in homes owned by the same family for generations, working for the government, or retirement income from a job in the City. That is not a sign of a healthy community.

The rusticity and decay noted by Doug is what happens when 98% of the land is owned by "the people" and only 2% owned by actual persons. Sierra snow made L.A., but L.A. does not have to forever make the eastern Sierra.

There is no going back; the annual snow melt will always flow south. L.A. County is now home to ten million people and the world's eleventh largest economy, and there's a reason its most famous drive is named "Mulholland". But water rights can be separated from property. In view of Asabat's comments, MWD might not be the long pole in the tent to changing things.

The relevant question raised by the symbolic shunting of L.A. water around the old aqueduct into a few miles of ancient riverbed and back into the aqueduct again is, is there a consensus for real change? Otherwise, this episode is exactly what Villaraigosa intended - a symbolic if empty apology rendered by someone who personally is not culpable and thus who has no real remorse for what was done a century ago, as an easy way to score political bona fides with the greens.

Still, I'm sure it was a good show.

John

When someone asked an engineer at the water district where I work which direction water flows, he pulled out his wallet pointed to it and said "in this direction".

The SJ Mercury News ran a story today (fill during holiday lack of news, probably):

<a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/16289021.htm">
Owens River Making Comeback -
Deal wth L.A. will Resurrect Valley Habitat
</a>

Has anybody been by the Owens River since the flow started? I assume that the river is now flowing to the catch basin at Owens Lake. Pictures?

Paul

Dear Paul;

I checked out the flow at the Hwy 136 bridge (this is south of town, where you turn for the InterAgency Visitor Center, and is the road to Keeler and Death Valley).

The three top photos at the link below were taken this morning (Feb 3, 2007) around 9am.

http://www.westernpaddling.com/owens_river.htm

Regards, Keith

Keith, I was hoping someone would respond, so thank you. At some point in the future I would like to kayak the river. Are you a frequesnt visitor to those sections of the river flowing? And, at some point will you be navigating the new sections od the Owens river?

Thanks again

Paul

How many miles can you paddle uninterrupted on the Owens River from Bishop to the 136 Bridge? Thanks,
Carol

Dear Paul;

We have just formed the Eastern Sierra Kayak and Canoe Club, and besides the obvious Sierra lakes, a goal is to help promote paddling on the Owens. I will have a link up with details and will let you know - it will be about another week or so. Club will be based in Lone Pine, but activities will be throughout Inyo and Mono Counties.

Several of us have discussed when to get out and paddle the Owens. I think we are aiming for sometime in March to really do a formal look-see. If you want more info (translation, if you want to get on the club's email newsletter list), just send me a personal email requesting that at westernpaddling (the "at" sign) gmail.com

Regards, Keith