The Mill Creek Proposal
In its 1994 Mono Lake decision, the Water Board required DWP to prepare plans for Mono Basin stream and waterfowl habitat restoration. Rewatering Mill Creek was identified in these plans as the most important action next to raising the lake itself for habitat restoration at the lake.
The proposal objective:
To rewater Mill Creek's natural stream course sufficient to achieve a multi-channeled bottomland and year-round freshwater conditions in Mill Creek's delta trenches at the lakeshore.
The proposal benefits:
Restoration of Mill Creek's natural hydrology resulting in:
- groundwater recharge throughout Mill Creek's bottomland and delta;
- re-establishment of wooded wetlands in the bottomland;
- a productive fishery the full length of Mill Creek; and
- a freshwater environment in both of Mill Creek's
delta trenches, or "rias," as well as a
freshwater skim off the mouth of the creek,
particularly important in winter months for
migrating waterfowl.
The need for restoration
- Mill Creek restoration will re-establish the kind of productive wildlife and waterfowl habitat that the Water Board recognized as having been destroyed by DWP's historic diversions, a kind that is rare in the Great Basin.
- Mill Creek's relatively intact deltaic bottomland offers an excellent opportunity to mitigate for habitat irretrievably lost elsewhere in the basin through stream incision, such as on portions of lower Rush Creek.
- Restoration of Mill Creek was
specifically recommended by scientists in
DWP's plans as the most important action
next to raising the level of the lake
itself.
Potential sources of water
Mill Creek water could be returned to its natural stream course by drawing upon all or part of the water from any of the following sources:
- Mill Creek flows in excess of those legally appropriated. Currently, unappropriated Mill Creek water flows by default down Wilson Creek during high flow periods due to limited return ditch capacity.
- DWP's irrigation rights. DWP has rights to 32.4 cfs of Mill Creek water for irrigation, which could be dedicated back to instream uses.
- Appropriated water not needed for irrigation. Conway Ranch, for example, has 18 cfs of irrigation rights. This water could be returned to Mill Creek when the irrigation season ends.
- Purchase of the Conway Ranch water rights. If purchased, all or part of the Conway Ranch's rights to 18 cfs could be dedicated to Mill Creek.
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