Having trouble viewing this email? Open it in your web browser.

Come join us at the Inyo/LADWP Technical Group Meeting tomorrow!

It's our last chance to urge LADWP to reduce groundwater pumping for the next year.

Patsiata (also known as Owens Lake). Photo by Santeena Pugliese.

Two weeks ago, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) released its Draft Annual Operations Plan for the next year. This document explains LADWP's plans for groundwater pumping over the next twelve months. 

Last week, Inyo County released its comments on LADWP's draft plan. Scores of Inyo County residents learned about how LADWP's plans would affect our valley and made their voices heard: we wanted Inyo County to ask for a meaningful reduction in water pumping. The County listened! Staff from Inyo County and LADWP will discuss the County's comments at the Inyo/LADWP Technical Group meeting tomorrow.

The Inyo/LADWP Technical Group meeting is the ONLY opportunity the public has to urge LADWP to revise its Annual Operations Plan before they finalize it. This decision will lock in pumping plans through March 2026.

The Technical Group meeting will be held TOMORROW, Tuesday, May 6, at 1pm. 

Let's tell LADWP what we'd like to see: revise the pumping plan to reflect Inyo County's recommendations!

Give a verbal comment. Attend the meeting and provide a public comment. We’ll show LADWP that Angelenos AND Inyo County residents both care about reducing water extraction from this region. This will be a hybrid (in-person + online) meeting. 

• Attending In-Person: LADWP Administrative Office, 300 Mandich St., Bishop, CA.
• Attending Online: 
  • This meeting will be held on Microsoft Teams. 
  • Prepare in advance by making sure you have an account set up already!

Submit a written comment. If you can’t make it the meeting, submit a written comment. Every comment counts!

• Email your comment to francesca.joven@ladwp.com by 12pm on Tuesday, 5/6.
• Your comment may or may not be read aloud at the meeting. Regardless, it will become part of the public record.

If you would like some guidance for planning your comment, here are our suggestions:

MAIN ASKS:

• Revise your groundwater pumping plan to reflect Inyo County’s recommendations, especially an overall pumping total of 48,720 acre-feet (af) OR LESS.
  • LADWP is currently proposing to pump between 67,860 - 88,560 af. That equals 22-28 billion gallons of water.
  • Inyo County is asking that LADWP lower these numbers to 48,720 af OR LESS. This still equates to 15 billion gallons.
  • However, this reduced volume is similar to what LADWP pumped last year. Matching this number will still cause impacts, but less than LADWP’s current planned impacts.
• We ask LADWP to demonstrate accountability by coming to the table in good faith to support Owens Valley Tribes.
  • We ask that LADWP agrees to resolve the longstanding water and land rights issues that have remained unaddressed since 1939.

  • It is time to honor these commitments and engage in meaningful, government-to-government dialogue rooted in respect, justice, and repair.

• Do not move forward with operations on several wells:
  • NO operational planning or pumping for Well 416 in Lone Pine.
  • NO installation of Well B2 or B5 in Bishop.
  • NO pump test on Well 386 north of Bishop.
  • LADWP does not need these wells now or in the future. The Inyo County community has made it clear that we stand against each of these intrusions into our landscape.
    • Please check out our “details” section below to read about these plans and why Inyo County residents reject each one. 
• Make your comments personal to you! By making it clear why groundwater pumping matters to each speaker, we make it clear that a wide range of people care about LADWP’s water extraction.
  • For Angelenos:
    • Why do you care about the impacts of LADWP’s water extraction?
    • Why did you take the time out of your day to join this public meeting? If you drove here, why was it worth spending a whole day in the car?
  •   For Inyo County residents:
    • Why do you care that LADWP revises its pumping plans? Do you want to protect a particular place in the valley?
    • Are you compelled by a specific topic, such as vegetation getting drier, a lack of effective monitoring for impacts, or dropping groundwater levels?

Details about specific wells:

• Do not pump Well 416.
  • This production well in the Lone Pine Wellfield was drilled in 2002. It has only been pumped for testing purposes, and results showed the potential for this well to adversely affect private wells and groundwater levels throughout the Lone Pine area, including the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Reservation. The Annual Operations Plan states that LADWP will create an operational plan for this well this year. They may begin pumping as well, in addition to the planned pumping from Lone Pine Wellfield.
  • These actions would be unacceptable. Please urge LADWP to remove operational planning for Well 416 and any plans to pump it.
• Do not conduct the pump test on Well 386.
  • Well 386, as well as its neighbor Well 385, is supposed to be permanently shut down. LADWP’s pumping from these wells devastated over 300 acres of Owens River riparian habitat and meadow between Bishop and Fish Slough, west of Five Bridges Road. These impacts were described in the 1991 EIR on the Long-Term Water Agreement and LADWP committed to restore the vegetation.
  • The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires LADWP to mitigate the damage they caused in this area. However, it has been more than 30 years since the impact and LADWP has failed to complete this mitigation project. Rare plants have disappeared, very little riparian vegetation has re-established, shrubs such as rabbitbrush are creeping in and taking over alkali meadow, and the entire area is covered in noxious perennial pepperweed. Beyond incomplete mitigation, parcels transitioning to drier vegetation violates the Long-Term Water Agreement.
  • LADWP needs to halt all plans for pump tests or future pumping for Well 386. This plan violates the 1999 Revegetation Plan, which called for the wells to be permanently shut down. If LADWP cannot mitigate damage caused by pumping, LADWP should not be allowed to pump.
• Do Not Install Well B2 or Well B5 in Bishop.
  • LADWP is considering installing two new wells in the Bishop Wellfield to provide "operational flexibility." Inyo County has stated concerns that these new wells could impact non-LADWP wells nearby. (page 1-12)
  • The Bishop Paiute Tribe is concerned for its wells and water tables.
  • There is no need for new wells. We ask that LADWP halt planning for these new wells.

Check out the Eastern Sierra Water Alliance (ESWA) website to learn more about our water justice work in the valley!

If you have any questions, please email lauren@friendsoftheinyo.org.

Main Office:

621 W. Line St., Suite 201
Bishop, CA 93514

Satellite Office:

142 E. Bush St.

Lone Pine, CA 93545

Visit us online:

FriendsoftheInyo.org

Write to us:

info@friendsoftheinyo.org

Call us:

(760) 873-6500

Like and follow us on social media: