Bishop - DWP prepares for mayor's second visit to 'new' river

The Lower Owens River will begin receiving increased water flows next week in a scheduled “seasonal runoff” phase. The Lower Owens River will also begin receiving increased attention next week, thanks to the mayor of Los Angeles’ hands-on participation.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will travel to the Owens Valley on Wednesday, Feb. 13 to participate in a water release ceremony and to take a Lower Owens River inspection tour. Villaraigosa will begin his day in the valley at the same spot where he stood 14 months ago.
It was on Dec, 6, 2006 that Villaraigosa stood alongside the Los Angeles Aqueduct Intake facility for a ceremony that marked water flowing into the Lower Owens River for the first time since it was diverted into the L.A. Aqueduct 96 years ago.
Now, just more than a year later, Inyo County water officials, LADWP staff, outdoor enthusiasts and monitoring environmentalists are indicating some positive changes have already started to occur in the long-dry river channel.
The Lower Owens River Project is governed by agreements and benchmarks that guide its complex implementation. One crucial mandate demands that the river achieve a “constant water flow of 40 cubic-feet-per-second (cfs).” A review of monitoring reports from the LADWP confirm that this 40 cfs is being met or exceeded at each of the 16 monitoring sites.
Another requirement that experts determined would be critical to rejuvenating the Lower Owens would be to have higher seasonal releases to recharge the river, in the same fashion that melting snow would traditionally do each spring.
The increased flows that will begin when Villaraigosa “pushes the button” at the Aqueduct Intake are designed to approximate what nature did for the river in centuries past.
This additional water being directed into the Owens River will gradually be increased. Each day, according to LADWP Hydrographer Ben Butler, “will see release rates jumping by 30 cfs, building to the 200 cfs level.”
As the heightened river levels reach farther downstream, that flow will be supplemented by water releases from the Alabama Gates. This secondary water diversion into the Lower Owens River will begin 12 days after the initial release at its northern intake point. This will ensure that the entire length of the Lower Owens River will experience a consistent 200 cfs. Following the same procedure used upstream, water from the Alabama Gates will build up over a period of days.
The higher seasonal flow rate will be sustained for a 24-hour period along the entire 63 miles of the Lower Owens River. The water releases into the river channel will then be ramped back down to the constant minimum of 40 cfs.
During his time along the Lower Owens River on Wednesday, Villaraigosa won’t be able to detect the incremental change in water flow and level. The L.A. mayor will, however, be getting a close-up look at what’s happened to the river since he “threw the switch” that turned the dry-for-nearly-a-century waterway back into a “river.”
While Villaraigosa is a busy mayor of a very large city, LADWP officials indicate it certainly didn’t take any “arm-twisting” to get the high-profile politician to schedule a visit to the Owens Valley.
“Not at all,” LADWP Public Relations Manager Chris Plakos said. “In fact, this all originated with a request from the mayor’s office. Having been here for the opening of LORP, Mayor Villaraigosa indicated he wanted to observe some of the enhancements to the Lower Owens River he’d been told about.”
According to Plakos, Villarai-gosa “specifically wanted a chance to see personally how things have changed during this past year. So, he and a number of his guests will be taking an inspection tour of a section of the Lower Owens River by boat.”
Drift boat fishing on the upper Owens has been a popular choice for local and visiting anglers for some time. Villaraigosa will be learning something about the appeal of an oar-powered outing on the Owens River. Local fly-fishing consultant and guide Brandon Wood, the owner of Owens River Fly Shop in Bishop, is scheduled to pilot one of his drift boats with Villaraigosa aboard to provide the visiting L.A. dignitary the up-close and personal perspective of the changing river corridor he seeks.
Others in the visiting entourage will also be taking to the water following the flow-release ceremony, “to better comprehend the important efforts that are ongoing to revitalize this important environmental asset to the Owens Valley,” Plakos explained.
According to Villaraigosa’s office, he will be joined during his visit by representatives of Inyo County, members of the L.A. Board of Water and Power Commissioners, the LADWP Chief Executive Officer and General Manager David Nahai and “representatives of the environmental community.” If all of those noted should elect to join Villaraigosa on the boat tour, that would undoubtedly be the largest flotilla the Lower Owens River has seen in many a year
“The mayor, the L.A. City Council, LADWP’s general manager, the Water and Power Commissioners,” Plakos said, “they are all very interested in good relations with the Owens Valley. That’s a big part of why they’re coming, too. They also want to increase the public’s awareness, both here and in L.A., that the Lower Owens River has reopened for recreation … whether for fishing, boating, bird-watching, whatever … this visit timed to the higher water releases are a good chance to see for themselves what’s taking place and to help get that word out to people – it’s here, enjoy it.”
Southern Inyo County businesses are paying particular attention to the rewatering of the lower stretch of the Owens River, expressing the opinion it could provide an economic boost to in Lone Pine and Independence.

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Public Relations Manager Chris Plakos (in background) and LADWP’s Justin Rossi help plan the logistics for getting L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa onto the Lower Owens River next week for a boat tour. The mayor will be in the Owens Valley on Feb. 13 for a water release ceremony to initiate a temporary increase in river flows. Photo Ken Koerner

“Among travel agents we refer to two kinds of ‘adventure travel,’” Lone Pine-based Cruise Planners Travel Agency owner Keith Franson said. “The first category relates to the go-for-it experience, like hiking Mount Whitney and extreme white-water rafting. The second is what we refer to as ‘soft-adventure’ – which is a perfect fit for fishing or kayaking on the Lower Owens River between Lone Pine and Independence, for instance.”
During their most recent meeting, Franson said, members of the Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce spent considerable time discussing options to attract visitors to the reopened stretch of river in their backyard. “With fuel prices and the overall economy being what it is,” said Franson, “we believe we now have something new to offer those seeking to fish and recreate in the area, something easier to do than hiking up to a mountain creek – and we’re an hour closer (driving time) to Los Angeles. We think this could be very helpful for our communities.”
Franson explained that he will be returning from a Kayaking and Canoe Expo in Bakersfield to be on hand when Villaraigosa is there to initiate the higher flows into the Lower Owens River.
The water release ceremony is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at 11:30 a.m. at the Los Angeles Aqueduct Intake, two miles east of U.S. 395 and 15 miles north of Independence. “This ceremony is going to be very modest in scale,” said Plakos, “but the public is welcome to attend.”
After the ceremony has been concluded, the boat tour taken and the dignitaries have all headed for home the waters of the Lower Owens River will continue to rise to levels and reach a velocity not seen since Robert Mulholland first shut that aqueduct gate.
Over the coming month there will be a considerable amount of measurements taken, data noted and observations recorded along the Lower Owens River.
The documentation that will be accumulated throughout this phase of the LORP project will be carefully reviewed by biologists, hydrologists, geologists, ichthyologists, ornithologists and a variety of other riverine and riparian experts, anxious to sift through the findings of this experiment to see what can be learned.
Despite all of the “science” that will accompany the increased flows in the river for the coming weeks, experts note that you don’t need to own a microscope or have a biology degree to partake of this unique opportunity. “The public is invited to enjoy this part of the river,” Plakos said.