The Los Angeles Times reports today on a significant step for LA’s water resilience and security that will also allow the city to stop taking water from Mono Lake’s tributary streams.
In the article, “Los Angeles will nearly double recycled water for 500,000 residents,” writer Ian James distills the major Mono Lake takeaway from the LA Board of Water & Power Commissioners’ approval of a major water recycling expansion: “Board President Richard Katz said this will enable the city to stop taking water from Sierra streams that feed Mono Lake—a major shift that will address long-standing demands by environmentalists, who criticize L.A. for failing to allow the lake to rise to a healthy level.”
Increasing the water recycling capacity at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys will more than make up for the 2% of LA’s water that comes from Mono Basin streams. Construction of the expansion project is already underway.
James quoted Board President Richard Katz, who said that once the recycled water starts flowing, “we won’t need Mono Lake water to meet the supplies in L.A.”
A wide range of speakers at Tuesday’s Commission meeting expressed appreciation for LA pursuing a more local and sustainable source of water. Many speakers are longtime advocates from communities in LA, who are valuable partners in the fight to save Mono Lake. They described the project as a solution that should enable the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) to finally fulfill its commitment and let Mono Lake rise to the healthy management level that was ordered by the State Water Board more than 30 years ago. That healthy level—6,392 feet above sea level—is nine feet higher than the lake stands today.
Speakers at the meeting also referenced James’ recent, excellent coverage of the Mono Lake issue earlier this year in the LA Times. James also recently wrote about how DWP’s groundwater pumping continues to harm local Tribal communities in the Owens Valley, south of Mono Lake.
Top photo by Andrew Youssef.