PUB00020

• Year: 2000
• Title: Layperson's Guide to Water Marketing
• CWCB Section: Interstate & Federal
• Author: California Water Education Foundation
• Description: Layperson's Guide to Water Marketing
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

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Beloit", a riel\' of the
Los Angell,s Aqueduct
ill Ou'ens Valley. The
most bitter bat/Ie in tlit!
state's waleI' \rors - and
mil' that has affected the
derelopmell1 of water
marketing - It'as over
the transfer (~rll.att'r
from the Olt'cns Valley
to the city of
Los Angeles.

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Transferring water from one region to another,
particularly from agricultural to urban uses, is per-
ceived by some as "robbing Peter to pay Paul." The
bitterest battle in the state's water wars - and one
that has a!tected the development of water market-
ing - was over the transfer of water from the Owens
Valley to the city of Los Angeles. In the early 1900s,
the Los Angeles Department at Water and Power
(LADWP) purChased thousands of acres in Inyo
County in the eastern Sierra Nevada valley sotely
for the purpose of exporting water. The city built
two aqueducts, one in 1913 and another in 1970.
The construction of the tirst aqueduct pitted
neighbor against neighbor, leading saboteurs to
dynamite the aqueduct. When the aqueduct was
eventually completed, it transported surface water
from Owens Valley to Los Angeles, 250 miles away.
A second aqueduct exported both surface and
groundwater and included diversions from the
streams that flow into Mono Lake, a separate basin
north of Owens Valley.

From 1970 through 1989, more than 470,000 acre.
feet of water were exported annually from the basins
- meeting as much as 75 percent of Los Angeles'
supply. Following the buy up at the valley's surtace
and groundwater, Owens Valley agriculture nearly

dried up. Today Los Angeles owns about 85 percent
of the Owens Valley and more than 300,000 acres
in Inyo and Mono counties. In place of the once
prevalent family farms are large stretches of open
space and undeveloped rangeland, and the region's
small towns are dependent on tourism and
recreation.

Owens Valley residents sued LADWP in 1972 to stop
increased groundwater pumping until an environ-
mental impact report (EIR), assessing the effects of
the second aqueduct's exports, was completed. The
pumping caused many of the springs in the area to
dry up, which in turn killed off the groundwater-fed
vegetation. In 1991, LADWP and lnyo County agreed
to cooperatively manage the valley's water resources
and in 1999, the counties released a long-term water
management plan to protect the groundwater
resources and riparian vegetation. Additionally, the
counties agreed to help mitigate the air quality prob-
lems resulting from the dry lake bed. Under the
agreement, Los Angeles can continue to pump
groundwater as long as the groundwater dependent
vegetation is not adversely impacted. The plan also
calls for using a combination of gravel and water to
reduce the amount of dust particles entering the
atmosphere from Owens Valley.

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