INDEPENDENCE — High in the eastern Sierra above the county seat of Inyo County on Monday rain and hail fell to help feed the stream that gives life to the community of 669 souls.

The result of the early afternoon drenching served up with exclamation points of lightning bolts will also eventually seep into underground streams to start a journey of years to reach aquifers in the Owens Valley below to nourish the handful of ranches and farms that have been able to survive since the early 1900s version of Gov. Jerry Brown’s beloved Twin Tunnels plan started sending water to the faucets of Los Angeles.

Paid state publicity hacks that troll the Internet searching for anything questioning the Great Water Works Endeavor that corrects what they perceive as Mother Nature’s foolish game plan to send precious life-sustaining liquid from the Sacramento River watershed into the Delta while undoubtedly give their keyboards a workout ridiculing such a comparison. The water re-engineering in the Owens Valley and what Brown is pushing in the Delta are as different as John Muir and Eli Broad.

But while the mechanics may differ, the two projects are mirror images of each other in that they divert significant water from nature’s course to make one region a winner and another a loser.

Much ado has been made about the agricultural paradise that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power destroyed. It is a myth repeated often including years ago in this column. But after 20 years of  hiking the Owens Valley its is clear the alkali soil and short growing season could not have turned the region into a lush farming paradise even if every drop of water that LA diverted was instead used to try and replicate the San Joaquin Valley.

Farming is not what LA destroyed or put on the critical list by diverting most of the water it takes from the region via sources in the northern Owens Valley long before it can trickle naturally through the length of the 120-mile valley that averages six miles in width. It is nature itself.

Instead of taking water after it runs its course through the valley, LA took it out of nature’s system as soon as possible. It was a move that assured no one else that still had water rights could touch it — not even the fish in the Owens River or Owens Lake — in times of drought. It also guaranteed the cost of getting water out of the valley would be cheap with no need of pumps and that the water entering the pipe for the long trip to the arid LA Basin would be the highest quality possible.

The Twin Tunnels proponents argue that it will keep water for LA intact during natural disasters. While they reference earthquakes, the natural disaster that imperils long-term water supplies is droughts.

They tout improved water quality as the fresh Sacramento River watershed water wouldn’t mingle with the brackish water of the Delta or be tainted by run-off. LA accomplished that already with the water they take from the Owens Valley much to the detriment of the environment and remaining farmers and residents.

Bypassing the natural course of water flows in the Owens Valley by diverting water at the northern most points possible, LA created a catastrophic environmental disaster at Owens Lake and pushed the viability of the Owens River itself to the edge. The only reason either survive today as a whisper of their former selves is the forced stewardship LA Department of Water & Power was finally compelled to assume by the courts after decades of litigation.

And if you need another example of how allowing LA to satisfy its thirst by preying on other regions can trigger environmental disasters, Mono Lake just north of Owens Valley underscores the foolishness of depriving the Delta of its natural flows.

LA started diverting water in 1941 from creeks that feed Mono Lake. In just 50 years, the lake dropped 40 feet, was half its 1941 volume and salinity levels doubled. The exposed dry lake bed also created dust issues.

Mono Lake — a prehistoric lake considered by scientists as one of the oldest in North America — had survived millions of years only to face extinction in a blink of an eye in the overall scheme of time due to LA growth.

Had court orders not stopped LA’s destruction of the Owens River, Owens Lake, and Mono Lake in its myopic endeavor to exert total control over water it diverts, the life-sustaining industry of Mono and Inyo counties — tourism— would be dead today.

What LA needs to do is recycle all of its wastewater and develop salt water conversion plants. Rest assured they will be much more careful with seawater conversion plants and how they impact the environment in their own front yard than they would be with Twin Tunnels some 350 miles to the north.

The Twin Tunnels will not create even an ounce of new water for LA.

What it does is assure that future droughts will have minimal impact on “their water” supplies as well as assure that “their water” won’t be degraded by being used by others as well as the environment on its journey south.



This column is the opinion of executive editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Bulletin or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA.  He can be contacted at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com or 209.249.3519.