Policy Notes

In 1998, David Freeman, General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, reached an agreement with Ellen Hardebeck, Director of the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District, to implement dust control measures at Owens Lake, beginning in the fall of 1999. Los Angeles bought most of the water rights in the Owens Valley early this century and began water diversions that dried up the lake by the late 1920s. Plans for controlling dust have been proposed over the years, but David Freeman was the first DWP General Manager to make solving the problem a priority.

Los Angeles will use three techniques to control the dust, which averages 300,000 tons each year. They will flood parts of the lakebed, plant native vegetation in some sections, and cover portions of the lake with gravel. All together ten square miles of the approximately 100 square mile dry lakebed will be covered by 2001, with an additional 3.5 square miles added in 2002, 3 square miles in 2003, and 2 square miles each year thereafter until the area achieves the federal air pollution standard. The plan will be re-evaluated in 2003 to assess how well the plan is working.

The Great Basin District has applied to EPA for a 5-year extension of the Clean Air Act, which currently requires compliance with particle emission standards by 2001. It is likely that EPA will grant the extension.

DWP estimates that 40,000 acre-feet of water will be needed annually to keep the dust problem under control. They will use mostly surface water, but some of the water may be pumped from local underground sources. The Eastern Sierra Audubon in Bishop is concerned that groundwater pumping could result in subsidence or negative impacts to wetlands and springs that surround the lake and to shorebirds and waterfowl that use the lake each year. DWP is interested in pumping groundwater because the water is non-potable and would allow the dust control project to start more quickly.

A CalFed Draft Environmental Impact Report and Environmental Impact Statement will be released June 25, and hearings will start August 4 and continue through September 24, a 90-day period. Hearings will be held in Chico, Sacramento, Oakland, Antioch, Stockton, Fresno, Pasadena, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Monterey. The goal is to have a final report in the spring of 2000. For an up-to-date schedule, see http://calfed.ca.gov.

The mission of the CalFed Bay-Delta Program is to develop a comprehensive plan to restore the ecological health of the Bay-Delta and at the same time improve water quality and the reliable delivery of water to 22 million Californians that use the system.

The first DEIR/EIS was made public in the spring of 1998. In comments on the next DEIR/EIS, the Committee will urge the state and federal government to focus on actions that can be taken or at least started within the next seven years, with an emphasis on water conservation, water recycling, watershed and groundwater management, and water quality improvements. We think it is essential that the Department of Water Resources improve its ability to forecast real water needs, taking into account urban and agriculture users’ ability to use water more efficiently.

The Western States Water Council, an organization of state water agencies in the West, adopted a strong resolution in support of national water efficiency standards. This is a important blow to HR623, the new federal Knollenberg bill to reduce water efficiency standards for low-flow toilets and showerheads. Five Californian Congressmen (Calvert, Cox, Doolittle, Herger, and Rohrabacher) support the bill.

In the 1997–98 Congressional session, Congressman Knollenberg (R, MI) introduced a bill that would repeal water efficiency standards that were established in the 1992 Energy Policy and Conservation Act. While this bill was greeted by humorists with many articles and cartoons showing Uncle Sam in the bathroom, those concerned about water conservation were alarmed. The water industry and environmentalists are counting on people using much less water over the next decades as 5 gallon toilets are replaced with the federally mandated 1.6 gallon versions. When the session ended, the bill died without having been heard in subcommittee, but in 1999 it was reintroduced as HR623.