LEE VINING, Calif. — The picturesque tufa towers on the shores of Mono Lake, fashioned over centuries by underwater springs and left excessive and dry as Los Angeles diverted water from close by creeks, have lengthy been an emblem of the saline lake. Guests who stroll beside the lapping water take photographs of the craggy calcium carbonate formations as flocks of migratory birds soar overhead.
However residents, native officers and environmentalists say the lake’s degree ought to be a lot increased than it’s as we speak, and that the totally uncovered tufa spires present L.A. stays removed from assembly its obligation to revive the lake’s well being.
That dedication was made in a landmark 1994 determination, when state water regulators required the L.A. Division of Water and Energy to restrict water diversions and take steps to lift the lake degree 17 ft. Mono Lake is now 8 ft increased than it was then, however remains to be about 9 ft beneath the required degree set 31 years in the past.
Pissed off by what they view as L.A.’s lagging progress, environmental advocates wish to the State Water Sources Management Board to set new guidelines additional limiting diversions so the lake can rise towards the goal degree.
“It’s not in good condition proper now,” stated Bartshé Miller, coverage director of the nonprofit Mono Lake Committee. “There’s systemic sickness within the lake when it comes to the well being of the ecosystem, and it wants extra water to get well to full well being and vitality.”
Miller and different conservationists say they’re involved that as a result of the lake stays far beneath its pure degree, ecological situations are worsening and a few hen populations have declined.
An osprey flaps its wings atop a tufa at Mono Lake.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Occasions)
DWP’s managers disagree, saying the ecosystem is comparatively wholesome and the lake has benefited from town’s efforts during the last three a long time.
Even so, L.A. Board of Water and Energy Fee President Richard Katz stated he and different metropolis leaders need to assist enhance lake ranges.
“I’d wish to see us not must take water out of Mono Lake anymore — long-term objective,” Katz stated.
Katz stated that he plans to discover town’s choices to reduce reliance on water from the Mono Basin.
“I feel Mono Lake’s a novel useful resource, and we must be doing no matter we are able to to ensure that it stays wholesome,” Katz stated.
Debate over lake’s well being
Mono Lake, positioned east of Yosemite Nationwide Park, is replenished by 5 creeks that carry snowmelt cascading from the Sierra Nevada. The lake, which is about two and a half instances saltier than the ocean, is positioned on the base of the Japanese Sierra, the place the mountains meet the Nice Basin Desert.
DWP diverts water from two of these creeks, Lee Vining and Rush, sending provides flowing almost 340 miles south within the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
Greater than 300 species of birds may be discovered on and across the 45,000-acre lake, which serves as an important stopover level the place birds migrating alongside the Pacific Flyway feed on brine shrimp and the larvae of alkali flies.
Annually, hundreds of California gulls arrive to nest on islands within the lake. Final 12 months, biologists who performed an annual survey discovered the gulls suffered a significant nesting failure. Whereas greater than 20,000 grownup birds got here to breed, researchers discovered simply 324 chicks survived. Information from this 12 months’s survey have but to be launched.
A California gull flies over the water at Mono Lake at dawn.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Occasions)
On a current morning, Miller steered a motorboat to the islands the place gulls nest. With him was Geoffrey McQuilkin, the Mono Lake Committee’s govt director, who held binoculars as he identified ospreys, American avocets, Wilson’s phalaropes and different birds.
1000’s of cawing gulls perched on a rocky island, and newly hatched chicks bobbed within the water.
Miller stated it was encouraging to see extra younger gulls. However he added that the gulls are nonetheless within the midst of an alarming long-term inhabitants decline.
“There’s half as many gulls as there was once, and the decline has accelerated since 2015,” Miller stated.
McQuilkin stated the struggling gull inhabitants displays broader ecological issues.
“It’s an indicator that one thing’s obtained to alter in how DWP operates,” McQuilkin stated. “The lake’s not wholesome.”
In its 1994 determination, the state water board positioned limits on DWP’s diversions and set a lake degree goal of 6,392 ft above sea degree. The board stated that if the lake had not reached almost that degree by 2014, it will maintain a listening to to “decide if any additional revisions” to DWP’s license have been vital — an evaluation that’s lengthy overdue.
Geoffrey McQuilkin is the chief director of the Mono Lake Committee. He says the lake wants to succeed in the next degree, as required beneath a 1994 state determination, to get well its ecological well being.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Occasions)
“One thing must be carried out to get to the 6,392 degree and get extra water to the lake,” McQuilkin stated. “It was a promise made to the folks of California, they usually’re manner off schedule.”
DWP officers say they welcome a possibility to revisit Mono Lake’s points, and have inspired the state water board to schedule a listening to.
“I feel Mono Lake is in a wholesome situation,” stated Adam Perez, DWP’s director of water operations. “It’s a wholesome and thriving ecosystem, compared to plenty of different lakes, just like the Nice Salt Lake, which goes by way of many, many challenges as we speak.”
Whereas drought and water diversions have pushed Utah’s Nice Salt Lake towards critically low ranges, Mono Lake’s ranges have repeatedly risen and fallen during the last 20 years.
DWP’s administration and environmental efforts, together with stream restoration initiatives, have benefited the ecosystem considerably since 1994, Perez stated.
“The lake is being managed in an environmentally accountable manner,” Perez stated. “We really feel that there’s a balanced method for Mono Lake.”
A state listening to will present a possibility to look at the science on the lake’s situation, together with its salinity, brine shrimp and hen populations, Perez stated.
The analysis on gulls doesn’t clearly point out why nesting was much less productive final 12 months, he stated, and varied elements could have performed a job.
Perez pressured that whereas L.A.’s water diversions have an effect on lake ranges, a bigger issue is whether or not situations have been moist or dry.
The lake declined throughout California’s 2020-22 drought. In 2023, deep snow within the Sierra Nevada introduced plentiful runoff, elevating the lake about 5 ft.
Within the final 12 months, nevertheless, the lake has fallen greater than a foot, eroding a few of the features.
Final 12 months, environmental advocates have been inspired when DWP officers introduced an preliminary plan to take solely a restricted quantity of water from the Mono Basin. They have been later dissatisfied when DWP ended up diverting a considerably bigger amount of water.
“These annual diversions by Los Angeles preserve consuming away on the progress,” McQuilkin stated, including that permitting water ranges to rise is very vital as local weather change brings extra intense droughts.
The Mono Lake Committee and different environmental teams have urged town to cut back reliance on Sierra snowmelt by way of efforts nearer to residence, together with recycling wastewater, capturing stormwater runoff and cleansing up contaminated groundwater.
Within the lakeside group of Lee Vining, a number of residents stated they need to see extra water left within the space.
“I feel L.A. must search for one other supply of water,” stated Marsha Blaver, a longtime resident. “Depart all of the streams alone. Let nature do its factor.”
An extended-running combat
The Los Angeles Aqueduct was accomplished in 1913, linking the Owens Valley to L.A. by way of a collection of concrete channels and tunnels. An extension was later accomplished connecting the aqueduct to the Mono Basin’s creeks, the place town has been diverting water since 1941.
As a result of the water flows by gravity, with out the necessity for pumping, the aqueduct has remained town’s most economical provide.
The Lee Vining conduit diverts water from a diversion pond on Lee Vining Creek to the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Occasions)
During the last 5 years, L.A. has gotten about 41% of its provides from the Japanese Sierra, together with about 2% from creeks within the Mono Basin.
A long time in the past, when heavy diversions brought on the lake degree to plummet, vocal opposition by a bunch of activists led to one in every of California’s longest-running environmental fights.
Within the late Nineteen Seventies, with the lake approaching historic lows and the salinity rising, activists started organizing protests on the shore, holding indicators with slogans together with “Rehydrate right here” and “Save the brine shrimp.”
Beginning in 1980, an annual bike-a-thon from L.A. to the lake was organized to lift consciousness. Blue bumper stickers declaring “Save Mono Lake” started showing on vehicles.
Environmental teams additionally fought in court docket and gained a victory in 1983, when the California Supreme Courtroom dominated that the general public belief doctrine — the precept that sure pure sources should be preserved for the general public — applies to Mono Lake. That laid the groundwork for the state’s 1994 determination, which sharply lowered the quantity of water that could possibly be taken.
The state water board now plans to take up Mono Lake’s points once more, however the scope and format of a listening to remains to be beneath dialogue, stated Jessica Bean, an official managing the trouble.
She stated it’s a priority that the goal lake degree nonetheless hasn’t been reached. “The truth that we now have not gotten to that’s problematic, and we need to discover a solution to obtain that.”
Stretches of salt-encrusted lakebed alongside the shore of Mono Lake emit mud on windy days.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Occasions)
These calling for an answer to lift the lake degree embody leaders of the Nice Basin Unified Air Air pollution Management District, who estimate that the present shortfall leaves uncovered about 2 sq. miles of dust-spewing lakebed.
Although the Mono Basin typically has clear air, windy days can kick up mud alongside uncovered stretches of lake backside, bringing hazardous ranges of air air pollution to distant areas alongside the north shore.
“Probably the most possible answer is elevating the lake degree,” stated Ann Logan, the district’s air air pollution management officer, standing on salt-encrusted lakebed that will be submerged if the goal degree have been achieved.
Eric Tillemans, DWP’s L.A. Aqueduct supervisor, stated mud is emitted throughout excessive wind occasions, however there’s “no proof that these emissions are affecting human well being due to the distant location.” He stated DWP officers have recommended {that a} possible answer could be to have a warning system and limit public entry to distant, dust-prone areas when excessive winds are forecast.
On a current afternoon in Lee Vining, longtime residents chatted concerning the state of the lake as they shared grilled tri-tip and corn on the cob at an outside gathering held by the Mono Lake Kootzaduka’a Tribe.
Ruth Austin, a 92-year-old Indigenous lady who grew up by the lake and now lives elsewhere, stated her father labored on a crew that helped construct the water infrastructure within the Nineteen Thirties. She remembers the lake being a lot increased in her youth when she went to the shore together with her household, carrying baskets to gather kootzabe, or alkali fly pupae, a conventional meals supply.
“I do see an enormous distinction with the lake. It has gone down quite a bit,” Austin stated.
The lands by the lake the place her household lived as soon as had inexperienced fields and ample flowing water, Austin stated.
“It’s all gone,” she stated. “It’s unhappy whenever you see the lake the way in which it’s.”
