Water Management in Payahuunadü
Learning Objectives
By the end of this module, you should be able to:
Understand the major events that led to our current water management system.
Understand how tribal water rights have been and continue to be affected by the history of water extraction.
Identify governing documents that dictate management of groundwater in Inyo County.
For a complete historical overview of the water story, please see the Water Story module. The Owens Valley Indian Water Commission also has a thorough history of dispossession of Indigenous land and water on their website.
Please enjoy this recording of our February 19th Virtual Workshop with Kristen Stipanov where we discuss The Long Term Water Agreement and the 1939 Land Exchange.
Key Terms
Acre-foot: The most common unit of measurement in water management, though there are other measurements like miner’s inch and cubic feet per second. One acre-foot is the equivalent to a football field (minus the endzones) full of one foot of water. It is equal to 43,560 cubic feet or 325,851 gallons.
Baseline: The term baseline refers to a baseline set of environmental data collected in the mid 1980s during the development of the Long Term Water Agreement. This is the set of data against which current vegetation and water conditions are measured, even though this baseline data was collected after intensive groundwater pumping initially impacted the valley. Because of the environmental impacts that had already occurred at the time of the baseline surveys, this is often referred to as a degraded baseline.
“Below baseline” means that the site conditions being discussed (usually vegetation cover or depth to the water table) are in worse condition than in the mid-1980s.
Abbreviations
LADWP Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
LTWA Inyo-LA Long Term Water Agreement
EIR Environmental Impact Report
AFY Acre-feet per year
SGMA Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
ICWD Inyo County Water Department
CDFW California Department of Fish and Wildlife
SWRCB State Water Resources Control Board
OVGA Owens Valley Groundwater Authority
LAA Los Angeles Aqueduct
GBUAPCD Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District
The Long Term Water Agreement and Related Documents
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The Inyo-LA Long Term Water Agreement (LTWA) is the major governing document that lays out goals and protocols for managing groundwater on LADWP land in Inyo County. It determines the process by which LADWP manages groundwater, including communicating to Inyo County about its annual groundwater pumping (or annual operations) plan. The LTWA was developed as part of a settlement over litigation by LADWP and Inyo County. The goal of the LTWA “is to avoid certain described decreases and changes in vegetation and to cause no significant effect on the environment which cannot be acceptably mitigated while providing a reliable supply of water for export to Los Angeles and for use in Inyo County.”
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This report, which was finalized in 1991, analyzed the impacts of the Second LA Aqueduct and certified the LTWA as a mitigation measure for increased groundwater pumping. It includes information on other mitigation measures and projects.
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A technical appendix to the LTWA with details on monitoring and assessing impacts from groundwater pumping.
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An agreement that resulted from several organizations (Sierra Club, Owens Valley Committee, California Department of Fish and Game, California State Lands Commission) taking legal action because of issues and deficiencies with the 1991 EIR. It identifies additional mitigation projects that LADWP and Inyo County must implement.
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A series of court documents which amend the 1997 MOU and provide specific dates, procedures, and enforcement measures for certain mitigation projects.
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The 1939 Land Exchange typically refers to both the 1937 act of congress which enabled the land exchange and the 1939 Deed actually exchanging land between the City of Los Angeles and the federal government. This was preceded by dispossession of Tribal land through federal policy and purchases by Los Angeles, as well as an effort by Los Angeles to remove the Paiute and Shoshone from the valley.
In the 1939 Land Exchange, Los Angeles received 2,913 acres of Tribal lands, while only 1,391 acres would become reservation lands for the Bishop Paiute Tribe, the Big Pine Paiute Tribe, and the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe. In this exchange, the Tribes would be unable to claim their water rights, due to Los Angeles claiming that the City Charter limited their ability to transfer water rights without a two-thirds citizen vote. Those tribal water rights remain unresolved to this day.
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Inyo County first passed a groundwater ordinance to regulate the pumping and export of groundwater, create the County Water Commission and Water Department, and develop a groundwater management plan in 1980. However, LADWP took Inyo County to court over the ordinance, and the court determined that Inyo County did not have the authority to regulate Los Angeles, meaning that the ordinance was invalid and preempted by law.
In 1998, Inyo County would again pass a groundwater ordinance to regulate the sale or transfer of groundwater to outside the groundwater basin or County. This ordinance is legally valid because it does not regulate groundwater export by Los Angeles, which is managed under the Long Term Water Agreement. Any other entities that seek to pump and export groundwater from the basin or county are subject to the ordinance.
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The Hillside Decree is a 1940 court decree that came out of litigation between the Hillside Water Company, which consisted of residents of Bishop, and LADWP. It states that LADWP cannot pump and export more water from the Bishop area, referred to as the Bishop Cone, than it spreads on LADWP lands within the Bishop Cone. It is intended to prevent permanent depletion of the water table. The Hillside Decree is upheld by an annual Bishop Cone Audit, in which LADWP accounts for and reports on the amount of groundwater extracted and used on LADWP lands within the Bishop Cone.
Other Important Documents