Status of Restoration

The Mono Basin is undergoing tremendous change. Mono Lake is rising overall, but the lake level falls seasonally and during years of little snow and rain. The State Water Board has targeted 2014 as a year to assess Mono Lake’s progress toward the target lake level of 6391 feet. The Mono Basin streams – Rush, Lee Vining, Walker and Parker creeks – are recovering, though the cottonwood-willow riparian forests alongside the streams are still young. It will take another 40 years for these forests to mature. Scientists are monitoring recovery with detailed measurements. On the more artistic side, photographers are tracking recovery through photopoints.

On Rush Creek, two years of Wet-normal peak flows (2004 and 2005) and one year of Wet peak flows (2006) have provided dynamic energy to the stream that has been missing since the late 1990s. Monitoring data from these three years have provided additional information for the restoration effort.

Restoration Compliance Report Filed
February 2007

The Mono Lake Committee and Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) have jointly submitted a Status of Restoration Compliance Report to the State Water Resources Control Board. This comprehensive document summarizes and categorizes all of DWP’s restoration requirements ordered under Decision 1631 and Orders 98-05 and 98-07. These required restoration actions are the result of the lengthy legal battle to modify DWP’s allowable water diversions to the City of Los Angeles and to begin repairing the damage that those diversions did to Mono Lake and the tributary streams.

The restoration requirements outlined in the Status of Restoration Compliance Report are identified as either ongoing, complete, in progress, incomplete or deferred. The report also includes a completion plan for those items categorized as in-progress, incomplete, or deferred and details the plans for ongoing items.

Committee staff, consultants, and DWP staff all worked long and hard on this project. The final product represents almost two years of analysis, discussion, and collaboration by both parties in reaching agreement as to the exact status of each item. The Status of Restoration Compliance Report will be updated annually with input from all interested parties and submitted to the State Water Board as part of the annual compliance reporting process. This concise and current report will guide both parties as we negotiate through the remaining restoration requirements and monitor our restoration progress into the future. The status report will be updated annually and filed by DWP in its annual compliance reports which come out every May.

Photo caption: This aerial view of the Rush Creek delta shows an ecosystem
coming back to life, thanks to the restoration activities conducted
by LADWP and the Mono Lake Committee.