CALIFORNIA
A 33-year legal saga
that has delayed one of the most ambitious river restorations ever
attempted in California is over, thanks to a last-minute lawsuit by
the state’s attorney general.
Inyo County’s
Lower Owens River has been dry since 1913, when it was diverted to
supply water to Los Angeles, 250 miles to the south. However,
California’s 1970 Environmental Quality Act gave the county
and environmental groups leverage to mount a legal challenge and
eventually negotiate an out-of-court settlement, which requires the
L.A. Department of Water and Power to restore a 62-mile stretch of
the river. Plans for the project, finalized in 1997, include
specific deadlines for implementation (HCN, 2/17/97: Who wins when
a river returns?) — but six years later, the city had met
none of them.
In early December, California Attorney
General Bill Lockyer joined the Owens Valley Committee, a local
activist group, and the Sierra Club in a lawsuit demanding the
Department of Water and Power complete the project. On Dec. 17,
less than two weeks later, L.A. agreed to a new set of
court-ordered deadlines.
“I think that the attorney
general’s lawsuit really got L.A.’s attention,” says
Mike Prather of the Owens Valley Committee. “When L.A. saw that we
suddenly had comparable legal resources, they really got the wheels
turning.”
Under the settlement, the water will be
returned to the river by fall 2005, with an eventual base flow of
40 cubic feet per second — about a quarter of the
river’s natural peak levels, according to the Inyo County
Water Department.
“Now, with the court enforcing all
timetables, this project can finally get moving,” says Tom
Dresslar, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office. “The
Owens Valley and the community have been working and waiting long
enough to see progress.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Owens River will finally get its water back.
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