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Despite the issues raised by Owens Valley. discus- sion at water transfers continued fhrough the 1950s while interest in water marketing grew in the 19705 and 1980s.ln 1977, then-Gov. Jerry Brown appointed a commission to conduct a comprehensive review of the state's water rights laws. The Governor's Commission to Review California Water Rights Law made several recommendations in 1978 to the egislature, including some encouraging water marketing. However, few of the recommendations were adopted at that time. There also were a number of studies that encouraged the development of water transfers in California as part at a portfolio of strategies to meet increasing demand. Two of the earliest studies that favored reallocating existing water supply through trade over building additional facilities were Efficient Water Use in California: Water Rights, Water Districts and Water Transters (1978), a RAND report by Phelps, Moore and Graubaurd, and Managing Water Scarcity: An Evaluation 01 tnterregionat Transfers (1984) by Vaux and Howitt of the University of California. The initial studies were met with heavy criticism, in particular from water suppliers. The federal government heightened its involvement with transfers during the 1976-1977 drought. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau), which operates the CVP, established a water bank to help alleviate severe shortages. More than 47,000 acre.feet of water was purchased from several water suppliers for an average of $49 per acre.foot and sold for an average of $50 an acre.foot to farmers with critical needs. Highest priority was given to growers of orchards and perennial crops without alternative sources of supply, and crops that support livestock. ~ The city of Los Angeles, in 1940, began exporting water from the tributary creeks that feed into Mono Lake; an inland sea set amid volcanic craters. The flow from five of the fresh water creeks that run into the saline lake was diverted in accordance with permits granted by the predecessor to the State Board, which regulates water rights and water quality. After four decades of diversions, Mono Lake dropped more than 40 feet, doubling the lake's salinity concentration and threatening the basin's unique brine shrimp and gull populations. In 1979, In 1991, the state of California made its first foray into water banking in order to help alleviate drought conditions through transfers. With precipitation that year 30 percent of normal and reservoir storage just above 30 percent of capacity, then.Gov. Pete Wilson directed DWR to implement an emergency Drought Water Bank to buy water from willing sellers (mostly agricultural). The idea was to cushion the water shortfall plaguing the state by transferring water from agricultural regions to water deficient urban and agricultural areas on a shorHerm basis. The success of the Drought Water Bank (see page 17) removed any doubt that water marketing is part of an evolving era of water management in the state. The struggle to seek out additioJlalH'afer supplies to meet the e\'er increasing demands (~rthe state'5 many highly populated cities will cominue to drive water rights debates il1 the jiaure. the National Audubon Society and the Mono Lake Committee sued LADWP to protect Mono Lake, The case, National Audubon'" Superior Court, eventually reached the state Supreme Court which ruled the State Board was authorized to reconsider and modify long standing water rights to protect the public trust - the public's rights to many natural resources including running water, the sea and its shore. After 15 years of legal battles, the State Board in 1994 amended Los Angeles' water rights licenses and significantly restricted its right to divert water from the lake's tributaries until the water level rises. s