WATER TORTURE
After an afternoon of water torture, the Inyo County Water Commission won one and lost three.
The commission saw its request for a reduced level of groundwater pumping adopted by the Board of Supervisors, so it will be included in the county response to the 2026-27 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) Operations Plan.
But, based on the legal constraints in the Inyo-Los Angeles Long-Term Water Agreement (LTWA), the supervisors during their April 28 meeting noted –– but took no formal position –– on a more forceful group of three suggestions from the Water Commission. The proposals were meant to push the county into a “proactive” position when confronting LADWP about its water operations in Inyo County. (See the April 25 Sheet for details on the LADWP Operations Plan.) The recommendations arose during several previous Water Commission meetings and were primarily brought forward by members of the Eastern Sierra Water Alliance, made up of Friends of the Inyo, the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission, and the Sierra Club.
The Water Commission, a strictly advisory citizen board whose members are appointed by the supervisors, asked the supervisors to press LADWP into action on revamping aspects of the Green Book, which outlines the technical parameters governing groundwater pumping and defines environmental conditions and damages.
The county has asked for a cooperative effort to update the Green Book, “over and over and over” and to conduct other water management reviews for years, noted Supervisor Jeff Griffiths. The county also claims the “on-off” protocols, which control which groundwater pumps can run or be idled based on vegetation conditions, are “a cruel tool.” Once again, despite county requests, LADWP declines to undertake any studies or possible changes, Griffiths said.
Since the structure of the LTWA requires that both the county and LADWP have to agree to undertake such work, the issue dies when LADWP says no.
The Water Commission also asked the county to push for a detailed report from LADWP on the exact uses of water pumped from each LADWP well in Inyo County, focusing on water for in-valley uses versus exports. Griffiths said the county has asked for that detailed information for years, too, and never gets it because the complexity of tracking flowing water, but will ask again.
The uses of pumped water are town water supplies, irrigation and mitigation projects, noted the county Water Department. But it’s almost impossible to track the final destination of pumped water since it can be “co-mingled” with surface water in ditches or creeks, evaporate or soak into the ground.
For example, groundwater is pumped initially for the Fish Springs Fish Hatchery, a mitigation project, which runs through the hatchery into a ditch, Haiwee reservoir, the Owens River, and then most likely the LA Aqueduct, where it could be diverted for irrigation or might end up on the Owens Lake dust mitigation project.
Supervisors Jennifer Roeser and Scott Marcellin both noted there are cases when groundwater use is “proprietary,” and not made public because it is part of an agricultural lease, for example, and could reveal business operations.
The supervisors delayed a decision on the commission’s request for the county to quickly undertake a more extensive, in-depth and expensive analysis of possible negative impacts on vegetation from excessive pumping LADWP.
“Who’s going to pay?” asked Marcellin.
Roeser noted the county has numerous pressing issues and a limited budget, so “it’s a matter of balance” when considering additional costs for the groundwater and vegetation analysis.
Instead, the board agreed with Inyo Water Department Director Holly Alpert’s recommendation to allow the department to prepare a list of five vegetation parcels that are critically below baseline and have been for decades.
The Water Department noted 18 parcels are terminally below baseline, while Water Commission members said about 30 more have also dropped below baseline levels at some point. By studying just five parcels, Alpert said the department could be able to estimate staff time and resources needed to conduct the complex analysis of those parcels that might lead to challenging the pumping levels allowed on the Green Book guidelines.
The only time the county conducted that extensive “Green Book analysis” of vegetation parcels was on Blackrock 94 and it took a year to do the initial analysis. Then, there were more than two years of mandated “dispute resolution” with LADWP before succeeding in getting a court order that reduced pumping, Alpert said.
The Water Commission barely eked out a win on suggested groundwater pumping levels, in a 3-2 decision.
The board eventually agreed with the commission’s recommended groundwater pumping total that was 4,920- acre feet less than proposed by LADWP.
The recommended pumping was hammered out by the Water Commission and members of the Eastern Sierra Water Alliance at an April 23 meeting. The commission’s suggested pumping total was also about 2,850-acre feet (AF) lower than the recommendation from the County Water Department.
Those two conflicting pumping recommendations stymied the five supervisors, who initially deadlocked over what number to include in the county’s official response to LADWP’s operations plan.
Here are the three sets of pumping numbers for 2026-27 the supervisors pondered: 54,310 to 81,360 AF: LADWP; 51,460 AF: Inyo County Water Department; 46,540 AF: Water Commission, which the supervisors adopted.
Supervisors Griffiths and Marcellin went with the Water Commission number.
Supervisors Orrill and Roeser backed the Water Department number, which they said supported the Water Department staff and was a “reasonable” total.
Supervisor Will Waldelton suggested tossing both numbers at LADWP, since it also presents a range of pumping.
After some hemming and hawing, Waldelton flipped his stance and said since everyone wants a lower pumping number the county should go with the Water Commission recommendation.
The lower pumping totals target three wellfields: Laws, Taboose-Aberdeen and Symmes-Shepherd, all of which have a number of vegetation parcels far below mandated baseline levels.
Orrill then noted that LADWP could, as it has in the past, simply ignore the county’s recommendation and implement the pumping totals in its Operations Plan.
