INDEPENDENCE, Calif. — State officials and environmentalists are urging a judge to sanction the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for falling behind in its efforts to restore a 62-mile stretch of the Lower Owens River.
The restoration project, the largest habitat rehabilitation effort proposed in the West, aims to create a healthy ecosystem in a river channel that now is mostly dry, except for the occasional puddle.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday April 20, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 43 words Type of Material: Correction
California Aqueduct -- A photo caption in Monday's California section with an article about efforts to restore a stretch of the Lower Owens River said it showed the Los Angeles Aqueduct near the city of Mojave. In fact, it showed the California Aqueduct.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday April 27, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 61 words Type of Material: Correction
Los Angeles aqueducts -- An article in the April 18 California section about the Lower Owens River said the city of Los Angeles began diverting water into a second aqueduct system that opened in 1913. In fact, the Owens River Aqueduct began delivering water to Los Angeles in 1913. A second system, the so-called Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, opened in 1970.
The plan calls for a flowing river to support a fishery and extensive wetlands for shorebirds and ducks. The effort is already two years behind schedule.
Inyo County Superior Court Judge Lee Cooper on April 25 will consider the lawsuit, which accuses the DWP of placing a higher priority on saving money and water than on meeting its legal obligations.
Plaintiffs contend the DWP is not complying with an earlier court order to have water flowing again in the riverbed by Sept. 5.
Although the deadline is months away, the officials and environmentalists argue that sanctions are warranted now because the DWP has acknowledged in court papers that it does not expect to meet the deadline.
Sanctions could include a fine or limiting the DWP's pumping of groundwater in the Owens Valley. Such limits would be worth about $5.7 million a year, roughly the amount Los Angeles saves annually because of delays in launching the Lower Owens River Project.
The Eastern Sierra is the city's cheapest source of water, according to plaintiffs' documents.Some water now going into the Los Angeles Aqueduct would be diverted into the riverbed and then sent back to the aqueduct after it completed its run of the river.
Sanctions against the DWP "will make delay less profitable for the city," state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said in a court memorandum. "If this water is not flowing in the river by Sept. 5, as the city promised, it should not be flowing in the city's aqueduct. The city should not profit from violating the court's order."
Lockyer's comments were recently added to a lawsuit brought a year ago against the DWP by the California Department of Fish and Game, the California State Lands Commission, the Sierra Club and the Owens Valley Committee.
DWP officials insist that the request for sanctions is premature.
"This is litigation over a deadline that has not yet been missed," said Jonathan Diamond, a spokesman for the city attorney's office, which is representing the DWP.
