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 greater than it’s in the present day, and that the absolutely 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 resolution, 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 toes. Mono Lake is now 8 toes greater than it was then, however continues to be about 9 toes under 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 fine condition proper now,” mentioned Bartshé Miller, coverage director of the nonprofit Mono Lake Committee. “There’s systemic sickness within the lake by way of 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 under 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 Instances)
DWP’s managers disagree, saying the ecosystem is comparatively wholesome and the lake has benefited from town’s efforts during the last three many years.
Even so, L.A. Board of Water and Energy Fee President Richard Katz mentioned he and different metropolis leaders need to assist increase lake ranges.
“I’d wish to see us not must take water out of Mono Lake anymore — long-term objective,” Katz mentioned.
Katz mentioned that he plans to discover town’s choices to reduce reliance on water from the Mono Basin.
“I believe Mono Lake’s a novel useful resource, and we must be doing no matter we are able to to guarantee that it stays wholesome,” Katz mentioned.
Debate over lake’s well being
Mono Lake, situated 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 situated on the base of the Jap 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 practically 340 miles south within the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
Greater than 300 species of birds might 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.
Every year, hundreds of California gulls arrive to nest on islands within the lake. Final yr, biologists who performed an annual survey discovered the gulls suffered a serious nesting failure. Whereas greater than 20,000 grownup birds got here to breed, researchers discovered simply 324 chicks survived. Information from this yr’s survey have but to be launched.
A California gull flies over the water at Mono Lake at dawn.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances)
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 government 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 mentioned 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 mentioned.
McQuilkin mentioned the struggling gull inhabitants displays broader ecological issues.
“It’s an indicator that one thing’s acquired to alter in how DWP operates,” McQuilkin mentioned. “The lake’s not wholesome.”
In its 1994 resolution, the state water board positioned limits on DWP’s diversions and set a lake degree goal of 6,392 toes above sea degree. The board mentioned that if the lake had not reached practically that degree by 2014, it might maintain a listening to to “decide if any additional revisions” to DWP’s license have been essential — an evaluation that’s lengthy overdue.
Geoffrey McQuilkin is the chief director of the Mono Lake Committee. He says the lake wants to achieve the next degree, as required beneath a 1994 state resolution, to get well its ecological well being.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances)
“One thing needs to be achieved to get to the 6,392 degree and get extra water to the lake,” McQuilkin mentioned. “It was a promise made to the individuals of California, they usually’re approach 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 believe Mono Lake is in a wholesome situation,” mentioned Adam Perez, DWP’s director of water operations. “It’s a wholesome and thriving ecosystem, compared to loads of different lakes, just like the Nice Salt Lake, which goes by way of many, many challenges in the present day.”
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 mentioned.
“The lake is being managed in an environmentally accountable approach,” Perez mentioned. “We really feel that there’s a balanced strategy 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 mentioned.
The analysis on gulls doesn’t clearly point out why nesting was much less productive final yr, he mentioned, and numerous elements might have performed a job.
Perez burdened 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 toes.
Within the final 12 months, nevertheless, the lake has fallen greater than a foot, eroding a number of the features.
Final yr, 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 disillusioned when DWP ended up diverting a considerably bigger amount of water.
“These annual diversions by Los Angeles hold consuming away on the progress,” McQuilkin mentioned, including that permitting water ranges to rise is particularly necessary as local weather change brings extra intense droughts.
The Mono Lake Committee and different environmental teams have urged town to scale back reliance on Sierra snowmelt by way of efforts nearer to house, together with recycling wastewater, capturing stormwater runoff and cleansing up contaminated groundwater.
Within the lakeside neighborhood of Lee Vining, a number of residents mentioned they need to see extra water left within the space.
“I believe L.A. must search for one other supply of water,” mentioned Marsha Blaver, a longtime resident. “Go away 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 sequence 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 Instances)
During the last 5 years, L.A. has gotten about 41% of its provides from the Jap Sierra, together with about 2% from creeks within the Mono Basin.
Many years in the past, when heavy diversions precipitated the lake degree to plummet, vocal opposition by a gaggle of activists led to considered one of California’s longest-running environmental fights.
Within the late Seventies, with the lake approaching historic lows and the salinity growing, 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 resolution, which sharply diminished 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 continues to be beneath dialogue, mentioned Jessica Bean, an official managing the hassle.
She mentioned it’s a priority that the goal lake degree nonetheless hasn’t been reached. “The truth that we’ve got not gotten to that’s problematic, and we need to discover a method to obtain that.”
Stretches of salt-encrusted lakebed alongside the shore of Mono Lake emit mud on windy days.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances)
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 usually 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.
“Essentially the most possible answer is elevating the lake degree,” mentioned 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, mentioned mud is emitted throughout excessive wind occasions, however there may be “no proof that these emissions are affecting human well being due to the distant location.” He mentioned DWP officers have recommended {that a} possible answer could be to have a warning system and prohibit public entry to distant, dust-prone areas when excessive winds are forecast.
On a current afternoon in Lee Vining, longtime residents chatted in regards to 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 girl who grew up by the lake and now lives elsewhere, mentioned her father labored on a crew that helped construct the water infrastructure within the Thirties. She remembers the lake being a lot greater in her youth when she went to the shore together with her household, carrying baskets to gather kootzabe, or alkali fly pupae, a standard meals supply.
“I do see an enormous distinction with the lake. It has gone down lots,” Austin mentioned.
The lands by the lake the place her household lived as soon as had inexperienced fields and ample flowing water, Austin mentioned.
“It’s all gone,” she mentioned. “It’s unhappy if you see the lake the way in which it’s.”
