Posted on 09/28/2006 7:49:50 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
A state Court of Appeal panel has upheld a court order to ban Los Angeles from using a key aqueduct if it doesn't restore a 62-mile stretch of the Owens River.
Wednesday's decision by 4th Appellate District panel in Riverside upheld a ruling last year that imposed sanctions against Los Angeles.
Owens Valley residents, environmental groups and state officials claimed victory.
"This may be the final salvo in the longest-running fight over an environmental impact report in California history," said Gordon Burns, deputy solicitor general for Attorney General Bill Lockyer. "Now, everybody is holding tight and hoping the city will do what it is supposed to do."
Jonathan Diamond, spokesman for City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, said it was unclear whether Los Angeles would appeal.
The history of the Owens River and Los Angeles' rise as a major city are inextricably intertwined. The river virtually dried up when the city began diverting water from the area nearly a century ago.
The $29-million restoration project will allow water to flow from the Los Angeles Aqueduct to the delta of the Owens Lake and a segment of the river. The water should create hundreds of acres of wetlands and maintain lakes and ponds in the region a few hundred miles north of Los Angeles. The restoration effort is being called one of the largest ever attempted in the country.
The aqueduct was built in 1913 to bring water from Inyo County to Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. The project, however, turned the once-fertile Owens Valley into a dust bowl.
In 1997 the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power agreed to create a natural habitat in the Owens Valley but missed multiple deadlines, prompting a lawsuit in 2001. After more than three decades of litigation, an Inyo County judge ordered the department to either act on repeated court orders to restore the Lower Owens River or stop pumping water from it.
As it stands, DWP has missed at least 13 deadlines connected to the project due to circumstances that agency officials insist were beyond their control.
Failure to observe the ruling would result in a permanent ban against using the so-called Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, an $89-million facility that has been exporting millions of gallons of water to Southern California each day for domestic use since 1970.
75% of the earth is covered in water. Just what we need. More acreage of water. Maybe there is a move on to make us all boat people.
By prolonging a minor concession the DWP has distracted their opponents from the big prize. Restoration of the Owens River to its conclusion; Owens lake.
In 100 years the DWP has been forced to make only two, minor concessions. Stabilization of Mono Lake and now restoration of a few hundred acers proximal to Owens Lake and dust mitigation on the bed of Owens Lake, both requiring only a few hundred acre feet of flow.
By prolonging a minor concession the DWP has distracted their opponents from the big prize. Restoration of the Owens River to its conclusion; Owens lake.
In 100 years the DWP has been forced to make only two, minor concessions. Stabilization of Mono Lake and now restoration of a few hundred acers proximal to Owens Lake and dust mitigation on the bed of Owens Lake, both requiring only a few hundred acre feet of flow.
All true. And false statements from the article:
"The river virtually dried up when the city began diverting water from the area nearly a century ago."
"The project, however, turned the once-fertile Owens Valley into a dust bowl."
I live in the Owens Valley, it is not a dust bowl but an outdoor paradise.
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