“I realized I had been drinking this water my whole life,” writes Sammy Roth, while standing at the Grant Lake Reservoir above Rush Creek, in his recent edition of the Los Angeles Times Boiling Point newsletter.
We highly recommend giving the full article a read—it’s poignant, timely, and so well-researched it even includes references from Teddy Roosevelt to the Star Wars prequel TV series Andor.
Roth chronicles a recent road trip he and his wife made to the Eastern Sierra and Mono Lake. Of his experience visiting South Tufa he writes:
Under a 1994 ruling by state officials, L.A. is supposed to try to limit its withdrawals from Mono Lake’s tributaries, with a goal of restoring the lake to an elevation of 6,392 feet — healthier for the millions of migratory and nesting birds that depend on it for sustenance, and better for keeping down dust that degrades local air quality.
Three decades later, the lake has never gotten close to its target level. L.A. continues to withdraw too much water, and the Mono Basin continues to suffer. Mayor Karen Bass said last year that the city would take less, but officials ultimately reneged, citing a dry winter.
As we walked past a sign on the way to the southern shore marking 6,392 feet, I felt a little pang of guilt.
Roth speaks for many in LA who have shared feelings of guilt upon learning of the water connection of Mono Lake to their faucets back at home. We here at the Mono Lake Committee have a message for you: The solutions are out there—they’re within our reach!
DWP has both the political power and the actual water supply to be able to reduce impacts on Mono Lake. Yet in years when Southern California has record water storage, DWP will not make good on its longstanding commitment to raise Mono Lake.
The Mono Lake Committee is constantly working with city leadership to make the straightforward changes necessary to raise Mono Lake to a healthy level—at which point the ecosystem will have a chance to begin healing, and Angeleno guilt can become pride. In fact, LA City Council formally recognized the importance of these solutions in a resolution declaring September 28 Mono Lake Day, just last year!
The Mono Lake Committee is offering reasonable solutions that balance the water needs of Mono Lake, its tributary streams, and the people of Los Angeles.
We’re on the same team, Los Angeles. Let’s do this.
Be sure to read the full article here.
Top photo courtesy of Stephen Trimble.