During a typical spring in the Mono Basin, the export of water to Los Angeles stops on March 31, the end of the runoff year, and water destined for Mono Lake is allowed to flow down the streams to the lake during the rest of the spring, summer, and early fall until DWP begins diverting again in October.
This spring, however, for the second year in a row, DWP never stopped exporting, departing from longstanding practice.
DWP is diverting water away from Mono Lake at a rate of 60 cubic feet per second and has already taken thousands of acre-feet of water bound for Mono Lake during a season when that water is critically important for both the streams and the lake.
DWP is currently exporting water from the Mono Basin
acre feet
When visitors arrive at Mono Lake this year, it will be lower than if normal practice had been followed. Less water for Mono Lake also translates into lower amounts of water nourishing the Rush Creek corridor on the way to the lake, more dust-emitting shoreline left high and dry, and a quicker lake drop toward exposing the landbridge that endangers California Gull nesting areas. Given that DWP’s diversions have kept Mono Lake too low for too long, it’s adding an avoidable insult to injury this year to prevent the lake from rising as much as possible this summer. While the export is technically allowed, the resulting impacts underscore the need for the California State Water Resources Control Board to change the rules that govern water diversions.
DWP’s continuing spring diversions are especially egregious this year because they have caused downstream problems at Crowley Lake Reservoir, which (with the exception of 2024) was the fullest it had been in 56 years in early April—even impacting recreation access. The water is not critical to Los Angeles this summer either, as confirmed by DWP officials stating at an April 14 Board of Water & Power Commissioners meeting, “We have no concerns about water supply for this upcoming year.”
In sharp contrast, concerns about Mono Lake’s water supply are very real, and have been for the 85 years that DWP has been taking water from the Mono Basin.
This post was also published as an article in the Summer 2026 Mono Lake Newsletter. Top photo by Elin Ljung.