Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion LA wants to steal Mammoth Creek water

I think Mammoth and LA have much greater commonality than difference. Both have been growing communities, also fed by migration from other areas and have had no intention of letting (then) current water availability limit their growth. Both game the system for greatest advantage. Both use lawyers in this process. Since California law has given wildlife values legal weight under law, both have added biologists to their quivers. Both advertise the wonderful contributions of their biologists to the benefit of wildlife.

The only differences are that LA had almost a century head start and seems to have had more money.

Mammoth and LA aren't unique. I live in San Diego County. 100 years ago there were 20 pound steelhead entering San Diego County streams to spawn. Local farmers and towns had growing water usage. Dams were built blocking spawning access. Diversions dewatered streams. Well pumping lowered water tables and altered vegetation and wildlife communities. LA didn't have any part in it.

While it doesn't exactly fit under the title of this thread, I think the interesting issue is the one Bob West has pointed to. Early water right law had no consideration of pollution effects and wildlife values. As the laws have been changed, the consumers of water resources have been compelled (kicking and screaming) to remediate pollution and wildlife impacts. Since Mammoth wants to consume more of the water that once kept Owens Lake filled with brine, does Mammoth want to pay more of the dust control bill? Wouldn't that be a fair apportionment?

The effort to identify and enforce the recent environmental law changes is ongoing and doesn't get as much attention in slower economic times.

The south coast steelhead has been listed as a federal endangered species. When that happened, the southern-most successful spawning runs were in Malibu and Topanga Creeks north of LA. It was assumed that dams and dewatering and hybridization with the millions of stocked hatchery fish had removed any trace of the original steelhead genetics further south. The assumption has turned out to be false. I've been volunteering through the local Trout Unlimited chapter under a grant from the California Department of Fish and Game on a project to collect DNA samples to identify which of the self-sustaining populations of rainbow trout in the area are genetic steelhead. During winter storm events some of these fish have been descending normally dry chanels to the Pacific, feeding and growing for a couple of years and trying to return. But what can be done to support these fish is parly about the water. See;
http://m.nctimes.com/mobile/article_cd5748e0-8130-571c-9c00-41848b859cae.html

That's one of my dogs in the fight.

Dale B. Dalrymple