Jennifer Little
This project documents the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP) legally mandated dust mitigation program at Owens Dry Lake in Southern California. It is the latest chapter in a century of legal battles over water rights and air quality in Owens Valley. Owens Lake lies in Southern California's...
This project documents the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP) legally mandated dust mitigation program at Owens Dry Lake in Southern California. It is the latest chapter in a century of legal battles over water rights and air quality in Owens Valley.
Owens Lake lies in Southern California's Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, about 200 miles northeast of Los Angeles. This 110-square-mile lake began to dry up in 1913 when the City of Los Angeles diverted the Owens River into the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The new water supply allowed Los Angeles to continue its rapid growth and turned the arid San Fernando Valley into an agricultural oasis, but at a tremendous environmental cost. By 1926, Owens Lake was a dry alkali flat, and its dust became the largest source of carcinogenic particulate air pollution in North America.
In 1998, the Environmental Protection Agency mandated that the LADWP take steps to minimize this dust pollution, which was 100 times greater than federal air safety standards. LADWP began construction on the Owens Lake Dust Mitigation Project in the year 2000. They have installed 42 square miles of dust mitigation zones, including 34 water pump stations, buried drip tubing, and irrigation bubblers to partially flood the dry lakebed. This dust mitigation program has cost more than $1.2 billion to date and requires so much water that it may not be sustainable as climate change results in a drier climate for California, which is currently experiencing the worst drought in recorded history.
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LADWP Shallow Flood Irrigation Zone, Owens Lake, CA
LADWP Irrigation Pipe, Owens Lake, CA
LADWP Shallow Flood Irrigation Ditch, Owens Lake, CA
LADWP Irrigation Construction, Owens Lake, CA
LADWP Sheet Flood Irrigation Pond, Owens Lake, CA
Dust Storm in Dry Shallow Flood Pond, Owens Lake, CA
LADWP Underground Water Pipeline, Owens Lake, CA
Salt Formation in dry LADWP Shallow Flood Irrigation Zone, Owens Lake, CA
Main LADWP Pumping Station, Owens Lake, CA
Original Los Angeles Aqueduct Intake, Owens Valley, CA