Drought on the brain
Standing Committee discusses potential water cutbacks.
It might as well be called the “Standing Still Committee,” as the decision-making group created under the Long Term Water Agreement (LTWA) between Inyo County and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) met on Monday in Independence to discuss irrigation and mitigation projects in response to the fifth year of severe drought— and made little progress on the subject.
At the center of the meeting was an attempt by LADWP to convince the Committee to reword a previous agreement made last year on how to best address the drought situation by discussing potential water cutbacks to ranchers and mitigation projects “as determined by the Tech Group.”
Aqueduct Manager Jim Yannotta told the Inyo Board of Supervisors last week in an attempt to get them to agree to the rewording that “We heard you loud and clear. We want to be pro-active, to do a better job. We’re trying to get ahead of the curve … to avoid last year’s 48-hour notice to local ranchers that their irrigation would be cut-off.” LADWP’s unilateral decision to send out the notice without regard for the LTWA, which requires that any such action be made in consultation with the County.
