A dispute over the size of a pump is jeopardizing an agreement between the city of Los Angeles and the Owens Valley that had been supposed to ease nearly a century of discord over water policy.
The argument centers on a plan to use water from the Los Angeles Aqueduct to restore 61 miles of the lower Owens River. Some of that water would then be pumped from the reborn river back into the aqueduct. The sticking point is how much water and how big a pump the city needs for the task.
The 61-mile stretch has been mostly dry since 1913, when nearly its entire flow was diverted into the newly constructed aqueduct. That engineering feat gave Los Angeles the water it needed to grow into a modern metropolis, but it effectively killed the lower river and caused Owens Lake to dry up.
The current disagreement between the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Inyo County, which includes the Owens Valley, has led to delays in a state-required environmental analysis of the river restoration plan. The delay has prompted the Sierra Club and an Owens Valley conservation group to sue both the Department of Water and Power and Inyo County. According to the terms of an agreement signed in 1997 by the DWP, Inyo County and the environmental groups, the restored Owens River was supposed to flow again in 2003. All sides concede that is unlikely.
Environmentalists have contended that the DWP is stalling to keep Owens Valley water for the city.
"Look, the need for L.A. to have water is no excuse for the DWP to not live up to their obligations," said Mark Bagley, an Owens Valley resident and Sierra Club activist.
The DWP has responded that the larger pump it wants would simply allow Los Angeles to retrieve water it is entitled to.
"Every single issue that comes up, they want me to get less water," said Jerry Gewe, the DWP's assistant general manager for water. "Basically, they want us to put in the smaller pump so there's no possibility of getting that extra water back."
The decades-old fight over Owens Valley water heated up in 1970, when the DWP finished the second Los Angeles Aqueduct. To fill it, the agency began sinking groundwater wells on land it owns throughout the valley.
The water table beneath parts of the valley dropped and springs began drying up. In 1972, Inyo County sued Los Angeles, demanding a study of the wells' environmental effects.
