New groundwater treatment facilities are indeed worth celebrating, and the Mono Lake Committee raises a glass to all those involved in getting the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power’s (DWP) North Hollywood Central and North Hollywood West Groundwater Treatment Facilities completed and treating 48,000 acre-feet of contaminated drinking water per year. Now it’s time to raise a glass to save Mono Lake.
At the August ribbon-cutting, leaders highlighted decreasing LA’s dependence on imported water, increasing climate resilience, and better water security as major achievements.
Mayor Karen Bass said, “While the impact of the climate crisis is local, so too are the solutions. These state-of-the-art facilities will help restore up to 43 million gallons [48,000 acre-feet per year] of contaminated groundwater daily to supply hundreds of thousands of homes with reliable drinking water—all while reducing our dependence on imported water and launching us forward to meet our bold climate goals.”
DWP was happy to spotlight the $308 million dollars in Proposition 1 grant funding the State Water Board provided to advance three groundwater remediation facilities that essentially increase new local water supplies. When the third facility, the Tujunga Well Field Response Action Treatment Facility, comes online next year, the three facilities will treat in the ballpark of 103,000 acre-feet per year.
When does reducing dependence start for the Eastern Sierra and Mono Lake?
While celebrating this impressive new supply, DWP is simultaneously preparing to fight the State Water Board tooth and nail to continue export of 16,000 acre-feet of water per year from Mono Lake as the lake level continues to fall—in spite of the State’s clear mandate and DWP’s legal obligation to raise the lake.
While everyone else is working together to achieve essential milestones in the effort to reduce dependence on imported water, DWP isn’t following through. Los Angeles City leaders like Mayor Bass and City Council Member Adrin Nazarian are pronouncing a smarter future for LA that reduces dependence on imported water, yet DWP’s aqueduct division remains stubbornly unwilling to commit local water supply gains in Los Angeles to any meaningful changes to long term imported water diversions from the Mono Basin.
How many more groundwater facilities, decades of work, and hundreds of millions of dollars of state and city funded projects need to come online before DWP upholds its commitment to Mono Lake? Pausing diversions at Mono Lake requires only 16,000 acre-feet. The math says it has never been simpler to follow through on the commitment to protect Mono Lake. Why, after 32 years, is DWP’s aqueduct division making this more complicated than ever?
Top photo by Olivia Nelson.