Above The Lower Owens River Project, with tule reeds lining the sides. Photo by Lynn Boulton, Chair of the Sierra Club Range of Light Group.
Volume 3 - Issue 6 | June 2023
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The (Water) Talk of the Town
What even is a LORP?
For 93 years, from 1913 to 2006, a large section of the Owens River was entirely dry, from around Aberdeen to Owens Lake, the Los Angeles Aqueduct diverting the water 300 miles away. On top of the initial draining of the Owens River and Owens Lake with the creation of the first barrel of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, groundwater pumping to fill the new second barrel throughout the 70s and 80s further decimated the Owens Valley, with springs, marshes, and meadows all drying up. The land of flowing water, or Payahuunadu, quickly became the land of swirling dust, and its inhabitants had had enough.
After decades of battle, lawyers, conservationists, activists, and the County of Inyo were finally able to hold LADWP accountable to this damage. The result was the Inyo/Los Angeles Long Term Water Agreement (LTWA) and the 1991 Environmental Impact Report (EIR). With these important documents came the establishment of a large array of mitigation projects for environmental impacts. The Lower Owens River Project, or LORP, is one of these.
The Search for Water
Under the Long Term Water Agreement, Inyo County and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) committed to return water to the full 62-mile reach of the Owens River from the aqueduct intake to the delta of Owens Lake. The LORP also provides permanent water supplies to several lakes and ponds west of the river in an attempt to recreate lost waterfowl and shorebird habitat, in all totaling approximately 1,800 acres of off-river habitat.
With a minimum 40 cubic feet per second (cfs) flow, water for the project is supplied from the Owens River at the point at which the water enters the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Once the water reaches the end of the 62-mile project, a pump system at the north end of Owens Lake pumps the water either back into the aqueduct or to the dry Owens Lake for LADWP’s infamous court-ordered dust control efforts.
Left Tule reeds choke up the Lower Owens River Project. Photo by Lynn Boulton.
In addition to the 40-90 cfs flows that run through the LORP, the project also features yearly “seasonal flows,” periods of up to 2 weeks with higher flows up to 200 cfs, meant to resemble a healthy river’s high runoff period. It doesn’t take a hydrologist or a CDFW ecologist to see that the project certainly does not resemble a healthy river, as the seasonal flows aren’t sufficient. The flows, too low to mirror a healthy river’s high and low cycles, fail to flush out vegetation which grows in the riverbed, leading to a marshy ecosystem rather than a true riparian one. The riparian trees that have been a large focus of the project’s attempts to restore vegetation on the banks of the Lower Owens River continue to fail to establish, let alone prosper, year after year.
The main culprit are the tule reeds, a native vegetation that thrives in marshy conditions. When this tall reed grows in overabundance due to consistent low flows, it chokes the river, making it impassable. As a result, the LORP, even 17 years later from that first reintroduced flow, remains “a moving swamp,” as Inyo County Fifth District Supervisor Matt Kingsley said at the most recent Inyo-LA Standing Committee meeting.
Right The meandering LORP. Photo by Lynn Boulton.
The moving swamp continues as a result of a non-aggressive approach: for starters, LADWP is not required to release seasonal flows in dry years, meaning in drought years the river sees only a measly 40 cfs flow all year long. Yet, with the local vegetation growing out of control in years of sluggish water, it is expected that the seasonal flow of 200 cfs isn’t enough in years it is released. It is expected the flow needed to flush the river would be around 800+ cfs, a good four times over the current allowance. Unless some changes are made to the original 1991 agreements, the swamp will only extend further out and upstream as time goes on, and the desired riparian habitat will never develop.
This is not controversial– even LADWP officials admit this project is simply not meeting its goals and the seasonal flows are in need of a revisit. Everyone knows the river needs higher flows, but higher flows means more water, and readers of Every Last Drop know that LADWP is rarely amenable to more water for the Owens Valley--at least not if it doesn’t go right back into their own system.
In order for LADWP to provide more water to the project, it would need to be able to increase the capacity of it's pumpback station. Due to concerns for LADWP potentially using the pumpback station to export more groundwater from the valley, the capacity of the pumpback station was limited to 50 cfs, only 10 cfs over the minimum flow. To increase the flows, LADWP would likely require an expensive increase in the pump capacity in order to be able to return the water in the so-called river back to their own system.
Last Thursday, June 22nd was LADWP’s annual report for the Lower Owens River Project. This year was, predictably, another year of failure to meet goals, like most of LADWP’s habitat and vegetation mitigation efforts. Yet again, there was a decline in trees and a rise in tules. With no changes to flow restrictions and no meeting scheduled to discuss revisiting the project's outline, it seems that LADWP officials might be waiting to see what this year's nature-provided high flows will do.
The hope: current flows around 750 cfs will help course-correct the "islands section," a part on the east side of the river known for its meandering waters and swampy habitat. High flows could help recut the side channels, deepening the channel and thus keeping water from spreading out to create more marshland.
Local weekly The Sheet has even described this year’s Owens River as “a fire hose shooting massive amounts of water all the way to Owens Lake.” Many eyes are on the gradual filling of Owens Lake in this exceptional year (and the flooding of sections of the Owens River); now we'll turn to see just what kind of lower Owens River project we end up with when all the snow is melted.
This year could show us what enough water, or even too much, could do for this habitat. On one hand, LADWP expects that tamarisk, an invasive plant that thrives in wet years, will abound, and has set aside funding to deal with this issue. Yet, on the other, high flows, at the very least, are likely to clean out some of the tule.
Right The now not-so-dry Owens Lake, giving hope to conservationists and headaches to LADWP officials trying to maintain dust control infrastructure. Photo by Jaime Lopez Wolters.
How do we achieve the dream of the Lower Owens River Project?
What would it take for the last 62 miles of the Owens River to be restored, for both wildlife and recreation? Just as in the case of Mono Lake and its failure to rise under current allowances for LADWP’s exports, saving the Lower Owens River means a return to the drawing board.
The initial flows laid out for the Lower Owens River were meant to be just enough to provide habitat and some seasonality, but a decade and a half later it is clear it simply is not sufficient. Seasonal flows must be re-evaluated, along with infrastructure and the systems in place that make this project possible. The LORP annual seasonal flows did not take into account a changing climate, as called out by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in a recent letter addressing the failing status of the LORP. The project has been failing for over a decade, and it is not going to get any more successful in an increasingly varying climate. A new plan needs to be developed to analyze how this project could succeed in a changing world where dry and wet years are becoming increasingly disparate.
The LORP, if done right, could be a unique opportunity for LADWP, Inyo County, CDFW, conservationists, and others to think creatively about how to not further dewater the Eastern Sierra and its critical wetland habitat in times of drought. A green Long Valley, a risen Mono Lake, and an actual Lower Owens River sounds like a far more resilient source of water to us.
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June Wrap-Up:
Another successful trash clean-up! Sunday, June 4th we kept Long Valley clean for our b-annual highway clean up. We hope you will join us at our next one in the fall.
We tabled at Eastern Sierra Pride's open market Saturday, June 3rd, and at Stellar Brew's Summer Solstice event on Wednesday, June 21st, alongside coalition member Friends of the Inyo. We got lots of newsletter sign-ups at both events, and if this is your first Every Last Drop-- welcome!
Above Sage Romero of AkaMya Culture Group performs as one of the many musicians and speakers at the Stellar Brew's Summer Solstice Folk Fest.
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Without Water is Now Streaming Online!
Can't make it to a film festival showing Without Water? Good news: You can now watch our film for FREE, online, anytime!
Help us in a big way by doing something small: Spread the message of Keep Long Valley Green by simply sending people in your contacts (and especially Los Angeles residents) the link to Without Water: https://youtu.be/ThJ9HW9yf-w
