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12/15/2011 Metabolic Studio will match your donation 
Early this summer the Owens Valley Committee received a generous grant from the Metabolic Studio, a direct charitable activity of the Annenberg Foundation led by artist Lauren Bon.

The Studio has been active in the Lone Pine area for the past four years. Among other projects, they are currently working on a film about the history of extraction and exportation of silver and water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles. Film locations include Cerro Gordo, Swansea, and the PPG site on the west side of Owens Lake. They have also initiated the IOU Garden in Lone Pine in partnership with master gardeners, community members, and DWP. Among other benefits the project builds enriched soil and distributes it to community members for their own gardens.

The Metabolic Studio has provided an initial grant of $50,000, plus a 1:1 matching grant of another $50,000. The grant is for general operating support to further the OVC mission to seek long-term protection, restoration, and sustainable management of lands in the Owens Valley.

Funds that will be matched include contributions over the basic $25 annual membership and any other cash donations or grants. (In-kind support of goods or services will not be matched.) OVC has until June 30, 2012 to raise the matching funds, but the Metabolic Studio will provide the matching funds in $10,000 increments.

OVC has already received a $10,000 grant from another foundation that requested anonymity. With the Metabolic Studio match of this grant OVC is planning to add a part-time Fundraising and Outreach Coordinator, our first staff person ever to work on this important function.

We have until the end of next June to raise another $40,000 and receive the balance of the matching funds. Please consider making a donation to OVC that will help us reach this goal. It’s a rare opportunity to have your contribution nearly doubled.
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12/14/2011 OVC and DFG settle hatchery and stocking EIR lawsuit 
The Owens Valley Committee (OVC) and the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) have reached a settlement in OVC's lawsuit challenging DFG's 2010 Environmental Impact Report for its statewide hatchery and stocking program.

When it filed the lawsuit in February 2010, OVC alleged that DFG's Environmental Impact Report failed to adequately examine past, current, and future impacts on Owens Valley springs and alkali meadows from groundwater pumping to supply fish hatcheries at Black Rock and Fish Springs in the Owens Valley. DFG leases the land for the hatcheries from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).

"The agreement is consistent with DFG's commitment to balance the diversified use of fish and wildlife for the benefit of the larger public," said Donald Mooney, OVC's attorney, "but it also protects habitat in the Owens Valley and ensures the survival of species and natural communities in this very unique region of California."

The Black Rock and Fish Springs hatcheries began operations in 1941 and 1952, respectively, to supply trout for the DFG stocking program in Inyo and Mono counties. Back then, both hatcheries relied on large, on-site natural springs for their water supplies. Records from 1936 to 1959 reported an average flow volume of approximately 8,000 acre-feet of water per year at Blackrock Springs. Approximately 16,400 acre-feet per year flowed from Fish Springs. The two hatcheries used natural spring flows for their operations until approximately 1970, when LADWP began large-scale groundwater pumping in the Owens Valley to supply its second aqueduct. Los Angeles had already installed large production wells in the vicinity of the two hatcheries as part of the second aqueduct project.

The production wells supplied the hatcheries with significantly more water than the springs did: an average of approximately 13,000 acre-feet per year at Blackrock and 24,000 acre-feet per year at Fish Springs. Combined pumping for the two hatcheries now comprises between 40 and 60 percent of all groundwater pumping in the Owens Valley every year, and nearly all of the water that flows through those hatcheries is then discharged to the Los Angeles Aqueduct for export. Not surprisingly, the hatchery production wells dried the springs at both hatcheries and have kept them dry.

The hatchery supply wells are exempt from on-off provisions of the Inyo/Los Angeles Long Term Water Agreement–provisions meant to avoid environmental impacts to the Owens Valley from groundwater pumping–because they are now the sole source of water for the hatcheries.

During recent settlement discussions, OVC learned that LADWP had conferred with DFG before installing the production wells that dried up the springs. DFG redesigned and rebuilt the two hatcheries in order to use groundwater from those wells. Neither of these facts was discussed in DFG's 2010 hatchery and stocking Environmental Impact Report or in a 1991 Environmental Impact Report that addressed the effects of pumping groundwater and diverting additional surface water to supply Los Angeles' second Owens Valley aqueduct.

Coincidentally, the change in the two hatcheries' water supply from the springs' natural flows to groundwater pumping took place in 1970, which is also when the California Environmental Quality Act took effect. However, DFG did not conduct an analysis of the change in water supply for its Owens Valley hatcheries or for its other statewide hatchery and stocking programs as required by CEQA until the Sacramento County Superior court ordered it to do so in 2007. Even then, DFG's Final Environmental Impact Report on the hatchery and stocking program, issued in 2010, only examined effects of ongoing pumping with regard to a 2004 to 2008 baseline period. OVC challenged the 2010 report on the basis that the DFG should have examined environmental impacts that occurred since 1970, when the California Environmental Quality Act took effect and the hatcheries began to be supplied with pumped groundwater, rather than only those impacts that have occurred after the arbitrary 2004-2008 baseline. OVC also alleged that DFG should adequately examine foreseeable impacts of continued pumping to supply the Black Rock and Fish Springs hatcheries.

The settlement agreement provides for DFG to identify a groundwater pumping limit at Black Rock Hatchery no greater than 8,000 acre-feet per year, the approximate amount of the springs' original flow. Although that is a reduction from the current pumping average of 12,000 to 13,000 acre-feet per year, DFG deems the amount adequate to supply hatchery fish production. DFG has also agreed to support a modification of the current “exempt” status for the two Black Rock hatchery supply wells to limit the pumping exemption to 8,000 acre-feet per year.

Because DFG receives hatchery water from and leases the hatchery and associated wells and pumps from LADWP, these modifications will be subject to LADWP's approval. The settlement agreement therefore provides for the DFG, by January 2012, to present a proposal to LADWP that addresses potential environmental benefits of reduced pumping and to modify the existing hatchery supply wells, at DFG’s cost, to enable the limits on pumping. The proposal will also include a plan to maintain historic fish production levels in the Eastern Sierra to accommodate for any reduced fish production due to reduced groundwater pumping at Black Rock.
The settlement also provides for work at Fish Springs, allowing collaboration between the DFG and OVC to conduct an impact analysis in the Big Pine well field at the Fish Springs Hatchery.

“The primary goal of this effort is to try to determine changes to groundwater levels and vegetation both before and after the Inyo/LA Long Term Water Agreement ‘baseline period’ of 1984-1986,” explained Mark Bagley, OVC’s President and Policy Director. The joint analysis will evaluate the potential of allowing water leaving the Fish Springs Hatchery to infiltrate into soils in the Big Pine well field and examine whether or not such infiltration might improve groundwater levels.

If the OVC and the DFG conclude that groundwater infiltration is feasible and would have substantial positive effects on groundwater levels in the Big Pine well field, the DFG will work with the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board to develop a plan to increase infiltration. That plan may include water detention basins, re-injection of water, wetland treatment areas, and/or reconfiguration of the Fish Springs Hatchery’s settling ponds. The OVC has agreed not to seek pumping restrictions below the current 25,000 acre-feet per year pumping capacity at Fish Springs Hatchery during the evaluation period.

“Our objectives in bringing the lawsuit have been met with this settlement,” Bagley wrote in a statement discussing the lawsuit. “....[N]othing seems to move very fast, but...we believe we will see some changes for the better.”
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7/6/2011 Inyo County challenges Los Angeles groundwater pumping plan 
(Excerpted from a County of Inyo Press release)

The County of Inyo has initiated legal action requesting that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reduce the amount of groundwater LADWP plans to pump from the Owens Valley during the next 12 months.

Under the terms of the 1991 Long-Term Water Agreement between the County and Los Angeles, LADWP produces an annual Owens Valley operations and pumping plan. The County initiated the legal action under the Agreement by providing written notice to Los Angeles of a challenge to the amount of groundwater pumping included in the plan.

LADWP’s planned pumping of 91,000 acre-feet of groundwater from the valley is the highest level of groundwater pumping by LADWP since 1989. By reducing the amount of groundwater pumping planned by less than ten percent, the City of Los Angeles could avoid a potentially costly legal battle with Inyo County.

The Chairperson of the Inyo County Board of Supervisors, Susan Cash, notes that this year’s high snowpack and runoff in the Eastern Sierra can be used to both help repair environmental damage from drought and previous pumping and still supply the City of Los Angeles with about 70 percent of its drinking water needs. With the expected runoff this year at 150 percent of normal, even with the County’s proposed reduction LADWP would still export about 380,000 acre-feet of water from the Eastern Sierra via the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

In February 2011 the Inyo County Water Department released an analysis showing significant negative impacts to vegetation in an area located a few miles north of Independence. The impacts resulted from groundwater pumping and surface water management activities of Los Angeles. The County’s challenge seeks to reduce groundwater pumping that affects this area. Reducing planned pumping would raise the water table under the impacted area, which should avoid further decreases and changes in vegetation and promote vegetation recovery.

“While we are confident our scientific analysis of these well fields is credible and pumping in them should be reduced on the available scientific evidence,” Cash said, “the larger question is whether the leaders in Los Angeles will be willing to work with Inyo County cooperatively on this fairly simple issue.”

The County is asking the Inyo/Los Angeles Technical Group to reduce groundwater pumping from 17,200 to 12,800 acre-feet in the Thibaut-Sawmill wellfield and from 14,000 to 10,000 acre-feet in the Taboose-Aberdeen wellfield in order to allow affected vegetation to recover in the vicinity of the Blackrock Fish Hatchery. The County is not seeking to reduce any groundwater pumping that supplies the fish hatchery.

When the County had the opportunity to comment on the proposed groundwater pumping plan, it recommended reducing overall pumping from the Owens Valley from 91,000 to 68,510 acre-feet. Despite the County’s comments, LADWP set the pumping amount at 91,000 acre-feet. The County’s current challenge focuses on the area of impacted vegetation and would reduce pumping levels in the Owens Valley by 8,400 acre-feet, from 91,000 to 82,600 acre-feet.

The Board of Supervisors expressed the intention to continue to pursue a positive working relationship with the City of Los Angeles but, in the interest of the people of Inyo County, chose this time to exercise the County’s rights under the Long-Term Water Agreement to protect the environment of the valley. Should the Technical Group be unable to resolve the dispute, the matter will proceed to the Inyo County/Los Angeles Standing Committee, a body composed of elected and appointed officials from the County and Los Angeles. If the Standing Committee does not resolve the dispute, the dispute will be resolved through mediation/arbitration or by the Superior Court.
Contacts:  Kevin Carunchio or Bob Harrington phone 760-878-0292 or 760-878-0001 Phone:
4/29/2011 Suction dredging may hit bottom in a watershed near you 
This March, the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) released a Draft Subsequent Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) assessing California's (currently suspended) Suction Dredge Permitting Program. Comments from the public regarding the document and proposed amendments to suction dredging regulations are due by 5 p.m. April 29, 2011.

A suction dredge is essentially a supersized underwater vacuum cleaner that recreational miners use to suck up material from river bottoms, stream beds, or lake beds. The vacuum removes river bottom or lake bed sediment via a large hose, passes the material through a recovery or separation system that extracts gold and other heavy materials, and then spews remaining material back into the stream, river or lake.

The California legislature and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called a temporary halt to suction dredging in August 2009 out of concern for the state's salmon runs. The Draft SEIR addresses potential environmental effects of the permitting program, which was suspended pending completion of the review, and proposes amendments to the pre-moratorium regulations. Before the moratorium, the California DFG issued an average of approximately 3,200 suction dredging permits per year in the state of California.

In addition to proposing a revised program, the document also evaluates the potential impacts of four alternatives: a No Program Alternative (continuation of the existing moratorium), a 1994 Regulations Alternative (continuation of previous regulations in effect prior to the 2008 moratorium), a Water Quality Alternative (which would include additional program restrictions for water bodies listed as impaired for sediment and mercury pursuant to the Clean Water Act, section 303(d)), and a Reduced Intensity Alternative (which would include greater restrictions on permit issuance and methods of operation to reduce the intensity of environmental effects).

The document also acknowledges some of the significant and unavoidable impacts of suction dredging, which include discharges of mercury into water downstream, resuspension and discharge of other potentially toxic materials, and unavoidable disturbance of riparian wildlife, including special-status bird species.

The Draft SEIR and supporting documents are now available on the DFG website at

www.dfg.ca.gov/suctiondredge

and can be provided upon request by calling (530) 225-2275. Copies of the Draft SEIR are also available for review at DFG regional offices including:

Region 1 601 Locust St., Redding
Region 2 1701 Nimbus Road, Suite A, Rancho Cordova
Region 3 7329 Silverado Trail, Napa
Region 4 1234 E. Shaw Ave., Fresno
Region 5 4949 Viewridge Ave., San Diego
Region 6 3602 Inland Empire Blvd., Suite C-220, Ontario
Region 6 4665 Lampson Avenue, Suite J, Los Alamitos (second location)
Region 7 20 Lower Ragsdale Drive, Suite 100, Monterey HQ 1807 13th St., Suite 104, Sacramento


Written comments will also be accepted through April 29, 2011 at 5 p.m. Comments may be submitted by e-mail to dfgsuctiondredge@dfg.ca.gov or by regular mail to:

Mark Stopher
California Department of Fish and Game
601 Locust St.
Redding, CA 96001

Comments received by the due date will be included in the final SEIR to be prepared for the Director of DFG.

For more information about the suction dredge program, visit www.dfg.ca.gov/suctiondredge/. If you need a copy of the Draft SEIR in an alternate format, please contact the Suction Dredge Program at (530) 225-2275 or the California Relay (Telephone) Service for the deaf or hearing-impaired from TDD phones at 1-800-735-2929 or 711.
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2/10/2010 OVC challenges California DFG's Hatchery and Stocking EIR 
Sacramento, California--The Owens Valley Committee (OVC) filed a lawsuit February 9 against the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) challenging the adequacy of DFG’s Hatchery and Stocking Program Environmental Impact Report (EIR). OVC’s lawsuit focuses on the group's concerns about the effects of groundwater pumping used to supply DFG’s Black Rock Rearing Ponds and Fish Springs Hatchery, both located in the Owens Valley.

“Our concern is with the overpumping to supply the Black Rock and Fish Springs facilities," said OVC board member Mark Bagley. "Those facilities operated for decades on natural spring flows. Since excessive groundwater pumping by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power dried up the natural springs in the early 1970s, groundwater pumping has supplied those facilities. The annual average pumping since 1973 to supply the facilities has exceeded the prior natural spring flows by more than 6,000 acre-feet per year at each facility." He added that there are no data to suggest that the excess flows to the hatchery facilities have provided for increased hatchery production.

"The data, however, do demonstrate that the excessive pumping has significant environmental effects," Bagley said. "We’re certainly not trying to shut down the hatcheries--they play an important role in the local economy and in DFG’s statewide hatchery program. However, we believe that pumping to supply the Black Rock and Fish Springs facilities can be reduced to the levels the natural spring flows used to provide without much effect on hatchery operations and with the effect of mitigating the impacts that excessive pumping has had and continues to have.”

Water that flows through the Black Rock and Fish Springs hatchery facilities flows directly into the Los Angeles aqueduct system and is exported to Los Angeles.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires that the Final EIR identify significant environmental effects of the project so that measures to mitigate or avoid those effects or alternatives that avoid those effects can be devised. The EIR failed to meet requirements of CEQA for disclosure, analysis and mitigation of significant project impacts.

The Draft EIR proposed a mitigation measure that would have significantly reduced the pumping at Black Rock. OVC representatives were surprised and disappointed that the Final EIR eliminated that measure.

The OVC lawsuit raises four main points and seeks a determination by the Court that the certification of the EIR is invalid and void because it fails to meet the requirements and guidelines of CEQA:

1. The EIR uses an inadequate and impermissible baseline by which to determine whether DFG’s hatchery program has significant environmental effects. Because it uses a 2004-2008 baseline, the EIR determines that only impacts above and beyond the impacts during the 2004-2008 period will be significant. When the Black Rock and Fish Springs facilities were established there were thousands of acre-feet per year flowing from the springs that fed the hatcheries. Now pumping for the hatcheries and other uses far exceed the original springs flows and have dried up the springs. However, by using the 2004-2008 baseline, DFG concludes that these impacts are insignificant because they occurred prior to the 2004-2008 baseline period. This baseline is inadequate because it disregards decades of impacts without any CEQA analysis. CEQA became law in 1970, yet this is the first CEQA analysis on the hatchery program.

2. The EIR fails to provide an adequate analysis of the Project’s impacts, and fails to provide sufficient detail regarding the foreseeable impacts that will arise from continued groundwater pumping to supply the Black Rock and Fish Springs facilities. Even using 2004-2008 as the environmental baseline, continued operation of the Black Rock and Fish Springs facilities will continue to lower the groundwater table and have groundwater impacts that are not analyzed or mitigated in the EIR.

3. The EIR failed to include feasible alternatives to the Project that were presented to DFG. Such alternatives included a groundwater monitoring plan that allows for reducing groundwater pumping for the Fish Springs and Black Rock facilities as needed to allow groundwater levels and groundwater-dependent alkali meadows to be restored. This alternative would mitigate significant environmental effects caused by groundwater pumping to supply the Black Rock and Fish Springs facilities that have occurred since the 1970s and continue to occur. Another alternative included limiting groundwater extractions at Black Rock to 8,000 acre-feet annually. This alternative was included in the Draft EIR, but omitted from the Final EIR.

4. Prior to approving the Project, DFG failed to adequately consider some of the public comments submitted during the environmental review process. The responses to comments in the Final EIR fail to meet the requirements of CEQA in that they neither adequately dispose of all the issues raised, nor provide specific rationale for rejecting suggested Project changes, mitigation measures, or alternatives.

The Final Hatchery EIR, which is the first CEQA analysis ever done on the hatchery and stocking program and which was done under a court order, was certified and the project approved on January 11, 2010. Under CEQA any challenge to the EIR must be filed within 30 days.

The Owens Valley Committee is a non-profit citizen action group founded in 1984 and dedicated to the protection, restoration and sustainable management of water and land resources affecting the Owens Valley. This legal action was filed in the Sacramento County Superior Court since DFG headquarters are located in Sacramento.

Questions regarding the OVC’s lawsuit should be directed to OVC’s attorney, Don Mooney, at 530-758-2377.


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