Bishop - Top L.A. officials greet revived river

2-16-2008

His visit to the Owens Valley began on dry ground for City of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, standing alongside the Lower Owens River. Before long, though, the mayor had slipped on a personal-flotation-device and stepped into a canoe.

Villaraigosa’s travels that day began by riding the rails in his hometown of Los Angeles. The mayor had boarded an L.A. subway beneath the streets of the city to bring attention to the viability of that form of mass transit. Next, the mayor boarded a helicopter for his trip to the Eastern Sierra to inaugurate higher flows being released into the Lower Owens River.
Then, making his way by foot from the landing site, Villaraigosa crossed the L.A. Aqueduct Intake that had diverted waters from the lower stretches of the river for nearly a century.
Villaraigosa presided over a water release ceremony at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday that marked the initial increase of water from the Lower Owens River Projects’ mandated 40 cubic feet per second (cfs) to a peak flow of 200 cfs into the long-dry river channel. The additional water is designed to approximate a “seasonal high water flow” in order to recharge the southern 63 miles of the river’s path toward the Owens Lake.
The ceremony was held at the Los Angeles Aqueduct Intake facility. Remarks were delivered to those in attendance by Villaraigosa, Inyo County Supervisor Richard Cervantes, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Chief Executive Officer and General Manager David Nahai, Owens Valley Committee President Carla Scheidlinger and Sierra Club representative Mark Bagley.
The common thread that was touched upon by each of those speaking at the ceremony was one of optimism for the ongoing recovery of the Lower Owens River, which was finally rewatered in December 2006 after being dry for 93 years. Everyone also spoke of an improved level of dialogue between those representing the water interests of the City of Los Angeles and those intent on protecting the interests of the Owens Valley and the Eastern Sierra.
“I came here 14 months ago to unleash a force of nature and today we see a remake of this setting that even Hollywood couldn’t have imagined,” Villaraigosa said. “A river channel dry for nearly 100 years has been transforming into a waterway that is attracting increasing numbers and diversity of wildlife and is adding to the health of the vegetation – 10, 20 or even a year ago no one could have predicted how quickly Mother Nature could recover.”
Some of those present indicated privately that the mayor’s assessment of nature’s recovery seemed a bit over-stated; however even those audience members indicated their agreement that environmental progress was definitely taking place.
Addressing the second of the collective speakers’ common themes, regarding an improved dialogue among all parties, Villaraigosa pointed out that past inadequacies will not be indicative of future interaction.

Following a ceremony on dry land, Villaraigosa embarked on a paddle-tour of a stretch of the Lower Owens River by canoe. During his remarks, Villaraigosa expressed a renewed commitment to healing the environment of the Owens Valley and to an enhanced partnership between L.A. and the residents of Inyo County.

“Today also marks our two communities (L.A. and the Owens Valley) coming together, as we haven’t always been friendly over the years,” said Villagraigosa. “L.A. was a desert and we took your water and made it into an oasis – but we also made this oasis into a desert. Today, as we work together, we (L.A.) will do what we must to continue this trend toward improvement. We want to work with you not because of lawsuits, but because we wish to do what is right to make environmental strides within the Owens Valley.”
Echoing Villaraigosa’s assessment of past problems between L.A. and the Owens Valley and his desire for better future relations, Inyo County Supervisor Richard Cervantes said, “We must build a closer partnership, a team, in order to work effectively together and bring nature back into a healthy state. I believe what we are doing here today makes a strong statement about increased cooperation.”
Villaraigosa and Cervantes stood together at the Intake’s electronic control panel and pushed the button that released the first flow of the higher water rates that will be coursing through the Lower Owens River during the coming weeks.
Immediately following the ceremony, Villaraigosa, Nahai and a small contingent of officials and media made their way to the “put-in point” for the boat tour of the river.
Smiling broadly and chatting casually with those gathered on the river’s bank, Villaraigosa slipped into a life vest and stepped into the canoe that would carry the mayor down the river for an approximately one-mile journey.
The trip took a little more than 40 minutes and included a small flotilla of canoes and drift boats.
While stretches of the river remain tightly constrained by encroaching tule reeds and dried tumbleweeds blown from the surrounding arid lands into the channel, there was water flowing where none had since the earliest days of the 1900s.
Following his tour by canoe, Villaraigosa briskly walked through the sagebrush toward his next manner of transportation, the helicopter that awaited his arrival to return him to L.A. once again.