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Inyo gets what it expected with pump plan |
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Wednesday, 07 May 2008 |
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By Ken Koerner
Register Staff 5-6-2008
Described as typical of recent annual activity, the coming year’s groundwater pumping in the Owens Valley is slated to remain aligned with prior levels.
This latest plan from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power calls for pumping 66,800 acre-feet in the Owens Valley during the coming 12 months.
This projected pumping output conforms to the approved levels established when the Interim Management Plan (IMP) was put into effect back in March, 2007.
The annual groundwater pumping plan for the Owens Valley was released in mid-April by the LADWP and was subsequently reviewed by the Inyo County Water Department.
Under terms of the Water Agreement between the City of Los Angeles and Inyo County, the LADWP is directed to publish its groundwater pumping plan in April of each year.
The “water year” upon which the pumping plans are based runs from April 1 to March 31.
To a significant degree, pumping levels correspond to the amount of precipitation during the winter season. The current Owens Valley Runoff Forecast is based upon the actual survey of snow gauging stations located along the Eastern Sierra Mountain front.
The long-term average Owens Valley runoff is 415,725 acre-feet, based upon actual data from 1956-2005.
For the period of April 1, 2008 through March 31, 2009, according to the LADWP report, the forecasted Owens Valley runoff is 356,100 acre-feet, or 86-percent of the long-term average. This includes runoff from streams in Long Valley, Round Valley and the Owens Valley.
The pumping plan was a topic of discussion when the Inyo County/Los Angeles Technical Group met in Bishop on April 30.
Though the plan’s evaluation by the Inyo County Water Department, which was delivered to LADWP just ahead of the Technical Group meeting, did result in some questions being raised.
Inyo’s Acting Water Director Bob Harrington characterized the LADWP document as being absent of any “surprises.”
“Our initial take on the plan’s details could be summed up as ‘just about what we expected based upon the forecasted runoff being 86 percent of normal,’” Harrington said, “but there were a few areas where we are requesting some additional specificity regarding the data.”
Perhaps most importantly, the county’s comment letter, dated April 28 stated the proposed plan’s pumping amounts are “consistent with the IMP.”
Specific questions mentioned in the county’s letter dealt with issues like whether the “in-valley uses” of groundwater shown for the Lower Owens River Project (LORP) and for Owens Lake dust abatement takes into account “either reuse of water provided to LORP on Owens Lake, or return of LORP flows to the Los Angeles aqueduct;” and questions like which specific well will be used to “supply primary irrigation needs,” when two different wells had been relied on in the past in that well-field and similar technical aspects of specific well operations.
While cooperation between LADWP and Inyo County has seemed illusive at times, Harrington explained the difficulty in drafting the mutually-agreed upon IMP has been worthwhile.
“The Water Agreement Inyo County has with the City of Los Angeles certainly affords the county more protection than California state water laws would provide,” said Harrington. “The California groundwater/pumping regulations are really sort of a free-for-all situation. Inyo’s better off with this particular agreement.”
Other business addressed during Wednesday’s Technical Group meeting dealt with the relocation of monitoring wells in the Manzanar area, caused by the upcoming four-laning of U.S. 395, that requires the current monitoring sites to be shifted; activity reports on the progress being made in revising the “Green Book;” the current status on a few wells – some experiencing operational problems, others unused for an extended period; mitigation reports being completed for study by the Ad Hoc group created for that purpose; and revisiting the “responsibilities” assigned to the Standing Committee.
The next meeting of the Inyo County/Los Angeles Technical Group will be held in Independence on Monday, June 16.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 June 2008 )
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