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LADWP may have cure for Klondike closure |
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Thursday, 21 May 2009 |
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By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
5-19-2009 Good news for residents and visitors who water ski and recreate on Klondike Lake: The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has developed a trial schedule for motorized use that keeps the lake open on a limited basis.
The new schedule, released by LADWP last week, keeps the lake open from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturdays from May 23 through June 13.
If the schedule works out without costing the LADWP money, the department said it would consider keeping that schedule throughout the summer.
“We met with the Save Klondike Committee people a couple times last week and the week before and I hope they’re happy with this,” said Clarence Martin, LADWP’s quagga mussel expert. “We’re trying to get a feel for how much use there is, and how this is going to work.”
Martin has been working with Inyo County and the Save Klondike Committee to try to find a way to keep Klondike open to motorized recreation despite the threat of a quagga mussel infestation that could cost the department millions of dollars. If the invasive bivalves do get into Klondike, it wouldn’t take long for them to spread to the Owens River and cause millions of dollars worth of damage to the L.A. aqueduct, dams and other LADWP infrastructure on the river.
Residents will be permitted to launch their boats on Klondike Lake each Saturday, only if they have their boat inspected at the LADWP office on Mandich Street in Bishop during regular business hours the previous week. The utility will charge a $10 inspection fee each time the boat is looked over. Residents will also be required to watch a 26 minute educational video regarding the hazards of quagga mussels the first time their vessel is inspected.
Martin said the LADWP is including the video for first-time inspections so that it has an opportunity to educate the public on the seriousness of the quagga mussel threat.
Inspections will be conducted by appointment only. To schedule and appointment, call (760) 873-0409.
Inspection tags from Diaz and Crowley lakes will not be accepted at Klondike because the LADWP is hoping the $10 inspection fee it is charging for Klondike will offset the cost of having an employee man the boat launch at the lake one day a week.
“For Diaz and Crowley, there is no fee associated with inspections,” Martin said. “What we’re trying to do is make this revenue neutral. We’re going to look at all the costs, and after four weeks, we’re going to talk to the county and make an evaluation.”
Vessels that pay the $10 inspection fee for Klondike will receive a unique tag that cannot be replaced once it is removed. Only the Klondike tag will be accepted at the lake.
If the inspection fees make the operation cost-effective, the LADWP plans to keep the lake open on its one-day-a-week schedule.
“We’re going to see what works,” Martin said. “We’re trying to give them something.”
And the Save Klondike Committee is grateful for the opportunity to continue using the lake.
“There are still things we want to work out,” said Save Klondike Committee Member Russ Markman. “We’ve got some ideas that we think will work, but we want to have a meeting and discuss them before we go public.”
The Save Klondike Committee is planning to meet sometime this week before hosting two public meetings, one in Bishop and one in Big Pine, in the near future. The date and times of those meetings will be published when they are released.
“We’re happy to see that they’re doing something, on Friday they closed the lake, now there are four more days,” Markman said. “Clarence personally came out and gave us the press release and he had a big smile, we appreciated that.”
Martin said that the LADWP will return to the Board of Supervisors after the four-week trial period is over to review how the process worked, how the inspection-fees worked out and how public participation went. At that time the ultimate fate of the lake will be decided.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 10 July 2009 )
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