CALIFORNIA’S LITTLE CIVIL WAR
Put together seven knowledgeable people who have been in the thick of the battles over Owens Valley water and environmental issues for years and you get a list. A long list. A long detailed list of the fights that still need to be fought.
Two panels of such folks were convened Nov. 16 and 17 during the Alabama Gates 2024 event in Lone Pine. The occasion marked the 100th anniversary of the famous “occupation” of the Alabama Gates by about 700 outraged Owens Valley residents to protest the land and water gathering shenanigans of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. They stayed for four days. They had a picnic. The county sheriff handed out citations that were ignored while he enjoyed the picnic dinner. They got statewide and national notoriety and glowing press. The occupation was crowned “California’s Little Civil War.” They literally turned the gates and released the flow of the aqueduct into the desert, draining the aqueduct, which was the primary water source for the city of Los Angeles. They eventually left the gates, turned the water back into the aqueduct and went home after “promises” of compromise and change. Those promises never turned into reality.
A familiar story which has been repeated, some would say, for the next 100 years.
Thus, the eco panel discussions outlining the ongoing “civil war” being carried out rather civilly by direct action, like at the gates, government negotiations, court orders and all the complex trappings of “modern” environmental activism in 2024.
Some high points and low points.
Noah Williams, Water Program Coordinator for the Big Pine Paiute Tribe, outlined the long, frustrating effort to reduce groundwater pumping for the Fish Springs hatchery south of Big Pine. California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife said the hatchery can operate with less water when not producing fish, but DFW and LADWP have floundered for years to install the mechanical systems to reduce flows when not needed. Maybe by 2025, he noted. More work is necessary, he added, to make sure “tribes have a seat at the table” when questions about LADWP, land and water are addressed.
Kendall Noah, communications specialist for the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission, noted the commission purchased the five-acre Three Creeks property and has been forming partnerships and a “network of advocacy” with indigenous and environmental groups in the region and in Los Angeles to make sure indigenous/Paiute history and perspectives are aired at decision-making meetings. One long-term unresolved issue is finally delivering the water rights promised to the Lone Pine, Big Pine and Bishop Paiute reservations when they were created in 1939. More recently, the local tribes have been making a push to have LADP provide more land to expand the three reservations, which now total just 1,100 acres.
Rewatering the Owens Lake and the arrival of hundreds of thousands of birds is one of the valley’s unique successes. The massive dust mitigation work by LADWP is legally mandated, but the continued success of the lake as a migratory bird stopover isn’t guaranteed. Mike Prather, of Lone Pine, who has been advocating for the lake and its birds for decades, pointed out “there is no legal settlement” that assures the huge pools of dust-suppressing water on the lake will remain as habitat. “We have a wink and a handshake” agreement with LADWP to maintain the flooded areas as bird and wildlife habitat, he noted. The state land board, which owns the land under the lake, and DFW have provided leases and licenses to LADWP for the dust work, which covers about 50 square miles of the 100 square mile lakebed. But with no legal agreement or court settlement mandating maintenance of about 20,000 acres of habitat, the situation remains “tenuous,” he said, “and needs to be watched.”
Watching LADWP at every turn is one goal of the Friends of the Inyo, according to executive director Wendy Schneider. That attention to detail followed by public protest has netted a few victories. She noted that with help from Mono County, the Friends and partners backed down LADWP’s plan to create ranch leases in Long Valley that left out the current obligation to provide irrigation water. Recently, the department also backed away from a plan to start drilling and testing new wells tapping “deep aquifers” after getting critical comments and publicity. The more sweeping goal, Schneider said, was getting LADWP to provide more backup material and time for public comment, preferably in open county meetings, to address LADWP’s annual pumping plan and before meetings, such as the Technical Group and Standing Committee, where policy and projects are presented.
Nancy Masters of the Owens Valley Committee pointed to a LADWP initial plan to develop a “water banking” site in Rose Valley. The idea is to put “excess water” from big runoff years in the aquifer there, then pump it out when needed. If anything, “water banking” should translate to putting more water in Inyo County aquifers and wellfields, she noted. Plus, “there is no excess water” in the Owens Valley. Years after water started flowing in the Lower Owens River, LADWP needs to be pressed to create “a real river, rather than a slow-moving canal,” she said. Several speakers addressed the need for LADWP to approve the Owens River Water Trail, a dormant plan to open six miles of the river close to Lone Pine to paddling and water sports.
When it comes to lists, Lynn Boulton, chair of the Range of Light Group of the Sierra Club, has a dandy. The group has been tracking and checking the 64 mitigation projects LADWP committed to completing 33 years ago when the Inyo-LA Long-Term Water Agreement went into effect. Some are done, some are sort of done, some are not performing as planned, and some are floundering, she said. A larger concern is the fate of Fish Slough, the famed springs north of Bishop where DFG biologist Phil Pister scooped up endangered Owens Valley Pupfish in buckets and essentially saved the species from extinction. Now, the springs could be extinct since the springs are drying up, Boulton said. The springs, initial hydrology noted, are linked to the aquifer in the Tri- Valley area, north of Chalfant, which is pumped extensively for the area’s hay ranches. But Mono County has stalled proposed action to address the pumping’s impacts on and Fish Slough until a large hydrologic study of the region is complete.
Despite the setbacks, long delays, small victories and frustrations, the fight for “sustainable environmental justice” will continue. “We’re not going anywhere,” said Williams.
And just like when angry Owens Valley residents stormed the Alabama Gates 100 years ago, the same passions drives the locals to keep pressing into the ongoing struggles over water and land in the valley. As Prather pointed out: “The things you love, you will defend.”
Jon Klusmire of Bishop will keep the following wisdom in mind: “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” – A. A. Milne.
