Sierra Club Seeks To Challenge Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Water Grab

Sierra Club Seeks To Challenge Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Water Grab

LOS ANGELES: The Sierra Club has intervened in a lawsuit brought by Mono County, California against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), challenging LADWP’s decision to drastically reduce vital irrigation waters it has for decades delivered to important wetlands, meadows and rangelands in southern Mono County.  

LADWP’s decision to dewater these lands abruptly changed 70 years of irrigation and management practices on 6,400 acres in Long Valley and Little Round Valley so that increased amounts of water may be exported from the Eastern Sierra to Los Angeles. The agency’s decision was made in direct violation of a state law requiring a careful analysis of its environmental and related impacts.

The results of LADWP’s devastating actions are already clearly visible. Anyone traveling Highway 395 near Crowley Lake passes thousands of acres of once-green wetland and meadow habitats that are now brown and dying. The drying landscape and the spread of flammable invasive weeds have increased the risk of wildfire, worrying both nearby communities as well as county officials.

Sierra Club and a diverse array of Eastern Sierra environmental, recreation and agriculture organizations and stakeholders have repeatedly expressed concerns about the impacts of LADWP’s water reductions. Among them are significant threats to the bi-state sage grouse, a California species of special concern which relies on the wet meadows for successful brood rearing. LADWP’s poorly conceived action threatens 30 percent of the bi-state sage grouse’s entire remaining population, dramatically threatening the future survival of the species and making it more likely that the bi-state sage grouse will receive additional protections under the Endangered Species Act.

Sierra Club California Director Kathryn Phillips said, “The Sierra Club is eager to join forces with Mono County to assure that the law is followed and the health and well-being of its landscapes and communities are protected. LADWP is offering a false choice–protect the Eastern Sierra or harm rate payers in Los Angeles. We reject this cynical tactic. Water conservation and other smart approaches are needed–drying up the Eastern Sierra will not fix LA’s water needs.”

Lynn Boulton, Sierra Club Range of Light Group Chair and Mono County resident, said, "Over and over we’ve heard LADWP say they care about the environment and economy of the Eastern Sierra, but their actions say otherwise. This water grab threatens all our local interests–ranching, environmental, recreation, tourism, community welfare and public safety. We will stand together to defend our water, our landscapes, our communities and our livelihoods.” 

The Sierra Club is represented by Attorney Laurens H. Silver and the California Environmental Law Project, a non-profit legal corporation.

Neither decision makers nor the public were provided critical information or the opportunity to comment on potentially significant impacts before LADWP took action, damaging biological resources in addition to the sage grouse and threatening agriculture, recreation, and tourism businesses and related economies that depend on both the health and beauty of the region’s landscapes. Under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), public agencies, such as LADWP, are required to analyze and consider the potential environmental and related economic and social impacts of their actions prior to taking those actions.