March 6, 2008
Owens Valley and Lincoln County

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

The proposed water pipeline project of the Southern Nevada Water Authority from wells in Cave, Dry Lake, and Delamar Valleys is often compared to the Owens Valley disaster in California. A brief background of what happened in Owens Valley is presented here.

In the early 20th century, Owens Valley was the scene of a struggle between local residents and the City of Los Angeles over water rights. There was little regard for the outcome to the residents of Owens Valley. Though promises were made, they were not kept.

William Mulholland, then Superintendent of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, decided it was essential to take water from the Owens Valley for the growing San Fernando Valley and built a 223-mile aqueduct. Completed in 1913, the aqueduct diverted water from the Owens River, fed by snowmelt runoff in the eastern Sierra Mountains, and touched off a bitter water war that is still being fought today.

Most of the water rights were obtained by buying out the ranchers and farmers. Eventually, the antagonism brought about by the “stolen water” methods led to violence. The pipeline was dynamited several times by local farmers in the 1920s.

In time, Los Angeles acquired most of the water rights and diverted the water. This resulted in drying up Owens Lake; it remains that way today. The lake was once 100 miles square and about 50 feet deep. KNX Radio reporter Mike Linder reported in 2006 that Owens Lake was the largest source of toxic dust pollution in America. The dust which blows north to Bishop and south to Palmdale has been tracked as far as the Grand Canyon. The dust sticks permanently to the lungs if inhaled.

The City of Los Angeles owns nearly 400 square miles of the best Owens Valley land, a swath of property about the size of Los Angeles itself. The Department of Water and Power has kept a tight lid on growth and economic development in the valley in order to protect its water sources. A similar scenario may be set to play itself out again between White Pine and Lincoln counties and the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

In 1970, Los Angeles Department of Water built a second aqueduct to divert even more ground and surface water to the city. This resulted in the drying up of the above ground springs and seeps, which killed off groundwater-dependent vegetation.

In 1997, Inyo County, City of Los Angeles, the Owens Valley Committee, the Sierra Club, and others, signed an agreement to allow the valley to be rewatered by 2003. Los Angeles failed to keep the agreement, and extended the deadline to 2005. By 2007, Los Angeles had once again failed to keep the agreement.

What was once described by an early California resident as a valley of “Ten thousand acres of grass,” is now a virtual wasteland of sagebrush, greasewood and woody shrubs.

SNWA General Manager Patricia Mulroy has also promised not to let the SNWA pipeline create another Owens Valley.