How does the resolution threaten the Tufa Reserve?
The Mono County Board of Supervisors resolution 00-12 calls for the state “to move the boundary of the relicted lands from an elevation of 6417 feet to 6392 feet.” There are three technical terms involved with the resolution:
Relicted land in general is land exposed by changes in water levels or locations, including lake fluctuations and stream meandering. Relicted land at Mono Lake is specifically considered to be the land exposed due to the diversion of Mono Basin streams to Los Angeles, which began in 1941. In 1941 the lake’s surface elevation was 6417 feet above sea level, therefore Mono’s relicted land today is the land which lies below the 6417 elevation contour—generally the still-visible white ring of land next to the lake. With a few exceptions (including the precedence of federal rights) the state is the owner of relicted lands created by non-natural means. In summary, Mono’s relicted land consists of all land below the 6417-foot elevation down to the edge of the lake—currently at about 6385 feet above sea level.
The 6417-foot elevation line is where the edge of the lake was at the time artificial diversions began in 1941.
The 6392-foot elevation is the predicted long-term average surface level of Mono Lake in the decades ahead, based on the 1994 State Water Board decision. However, the lake will still naturally fluctuate in dry and wet years, and as the seasons change. The lake should remain between 6390 and 6394 about 75% of the time according to a model based on the recent past climate. It could rise up to 6400 and drop to 6388 or rare occasions.
The 1982 act creating the Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve declared that all the relicted lands at Mono Lake be managed as part of the reserve. Resolution 00-12 is confusing, because it proposes to move the relicted land boundary, a redefinition which isn’t physically possible. Nonetheless, the intent would be to move the boundary of state ownership, and thus the boundary of the Reserve itself. Simply stated, if the boundary were moved to 6392, the land base of the Tufa State Reserve would be eliminated once the lake reaches its management level.
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