I don't see misrepresentation and manipulation in these criticisms of LADWP. Even LADWP admits to deception in the original land purchase. This is right off their website:
The Last Spike is Driven
Eaton visited the Owens Valley in 1905 and began to purchase land for the City of Los Angeles. He gave the impression that he was working for the US Reclamation Service on a public irrigation project, angering local residents when they discovered he was buying land and water rights for Los Angeles
Of course once the valley began to dry up and the federal troops were called in, the future of farming became quite clear. There wasn't going to be any reclamation project and the water was going hundreds of miles away. Farming as they knew it just wasn't going to happen. Of course the remaining farmers sold out after that point in history. The battle was already over.
But that's all history and those people are mostly all dead. What's bothersome is the failure to recognize the impact of that history. Instead of trying to patch things up, LADWP pursued an aggressive legalistic approach to every issue that comes up. They consistently fight every attempt to address the impacts they are causing. I'm suggesting this current battle over the last drop of Mammoth water might be a good time to change that aggressive legalistic strategy. It's never too late to try to repair historical differences and start to build some mutual trust and respect. There will be plenty more issues in the future where it will pay off.
