The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, accused of an accelerated search for every drop of water in the Eastern Sierra, now does not want to put water into the McNally ponds which is a required enhancement/mitigation project in Laws north of Bishop. The Inyo Water Commission recommends that the Inyo Supervisors support supplying the ponds with water from river diversions.
Earlier in September LADWP officials announced that they would ask the Inyo-LA Standing Committee to reduce the water supply to the McNally Ponds which were designed to mitigate major groundwater pumping in the 80s which destroyed whole areas of vegetation. The Long Term Water Agreement says that the Inyo Supervisors and LADWP working through the Standing Committee must agree to modifications of mitigation projects before changes happen.
When they met last week, the Inyo Water Commission recommended that the ponds be supplied with river water this year and that LADWP compensate Inyo County for past years when they did not supply the ponds with water and failed to get permission.
A report to the Water Commission says that LADWP’s annual Owens Valley report for three run-off years between 2007 and 2010 reveals that LA did not supply water to the McNally Ponds. The report also says, “It is probable that LADWP violated the Water Agreement in these years and perhaps others by decreasing the water supplied to the project without the agreement of the Board of Supervisors.”
As for the possible use of pumped water for the McNally Ponds, the Water Department report says that “vegetation and water table conditions in the area are in poor shape and additional pumping would exacerbate these conditions.”
In the Long Term Water Agreement, LADWP agreed to provide water to the McNally Ponds and to an area southeast of the Laws area. Earlier, Water Director Bob Harrington said that DWP has claimed that dry conditions have led to their request not to water McNally. This issue will go to the Inyo Supervisors next Tuesday and apparently on to the Standing Committee meeting next Wednesday.
L.A.sucks…………mcnally ponds dry
The US drought is underground:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=79228
Badfinger-What color pom-poms DWP give you?
I’m going to repost my comments from another articel: Inyo/Mono Counties need to go on a major, national, PR campaign to show the Country (and especially L.A. voters and citizens) how destructive the LADWP is to the Owens Valley, past, present & future. DWP’s latest campaigns exemplify sociopathic behavior. While… Read more »
Yes Bill, I have said this before … those folks who know where to put these news items .. in the right ears, the right news venue. Remember Mono Lake. That word got out there, and it made a difference. We need some big crowds to put pressure to bear,… Read more »
This is clearly a campaign of propaganda aimed at destroying DWP’s credibility, DWP has managed the sierra water resources for the past hundred years and they will for the Next Hundred years…..
I don’t think so!
managed? I think you ment mis-managed.
LADWP is asking the Standing Committee to “agree that extraordinary conditions exist this year that limit the amount of water available to supply the project …” During these extraordinary conditions, LADWP should be making extraordinary efforts to fix their constantly breaking pipes, implement customer water restrictions, and improve the irrigation… Read more »
Use of a well .. or wells in the area .. hmmm seem legit .. So use a well or wells to pump water up from a damaged area, according to local sources who say the area has been damaged by previous pumping? How does that work? The mitigation clearly… Read more »
They are going for Mammoths water and now this, it just doesn’t seem legal that they are just doing whatever they want !!
See: http://www.ladwpnews.com/go/doc/1475/1550239/ Due to the low Eastern Sierra snowpack and runoff during the 2012-13 runoff year which was forecast to be approximately 65% of normal, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is requesting that the Los Angeles-Inyo County Standing Committee address the supply of water to the… Read more »
“Unless a well supply becomes available or another solution is idenified, the 60 acre-McNally Ponds that are currently dry are not…” This paragraph does not explain the status of the well(s) and why they are or are not able to provide water to the McNally Ponds at this point, or… Read more »
This would be a good cause for Friends of the Inyo, and the Center for Biological Diversity.
I’m sure the saving of the ponds would be a cause everyone could rally around.
That is what I have suggested in the past .. on items related to this issue, get the word out to the right places, the water just might flow?
LADWP Gone Wild…
They have the mentality of bringing the “greatest good for the greatest number of people” so to get them to abide by there own agreements is up too our county leaders. How much are they willing to fight? Would it be a good thing or a bad thing if the… Read more »
OH here we go again .. they just seem to do what they want, and not do what they have been told to do .. and what they should be doing.
have they turned off the fountain at the LADWP building yet in downtown LA?
I just called DWP and the operator confirmed that the moat and fountain are still there and going.
Benett Kessler
So let’s follow this closely and watch how our Supervisors vote. Let them know ahead of time how you want them to vote, AND, after the meeting, follow up either thanking or berating them for their vote. Unless we pay attention to every meeting and each of our representatives’ votes,… Read more »
Very true Chris!
Greedy little jerks!
Oh hell no! They’ve done enough damage.