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The
Committee’s Founding
It all started in 1974, when David Gaines became
aquainted with Mono Lake during an inventory of the
natural areas of Mono County. In 1975, when he was a
teaching assistant at Stanford,
he sparked an interest in Mono Lake among the students.
Along with undergraduate students from UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz,
and Earlham College, they wrote and earned a grant from
the National Science
 Foundation.
These students used this grant to conduct the first
comprehensive ecological study of Mono Lake, and in June
1977 the UC Davis Institute of Ecology published their
report, "An Ecological Study of Mono Lake,
California."
This report drew attention to the potentially
catastrophic ecological impacts of Mono Lake’s
falling level, which was due to diversions of water from
its tributary streams by the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power (LADWP). These diversions began in
1941 and caused the lake to lose half of its volume and
double in salinity. They also caused Negit Island, an
important rookery for California Gulls, to become
connected to the mainland, allowing predators access to
the nesting birds.
The student that edited this report, David Winkler,
walked across the newly formed land bridge to Negit
Island in November 1977, and felt compelled to do
something before the next gull breeding season. He
enlisted the help of David Gaines, who wrote the
introduction to the report, and Sally Judy, another UC
Davis student who would soon marry Gaines.
They approached the Sierra Club’s
Mono Lake Task Force, Friends
of the Earth, and the Natural Resources
Defense Council. All were willing to provide support,
but none were willing to lead the effort to save Mono
Lake.
David Gaines then appealed to the National Audubon
Society’s Santa Monica chapter, and in March 1978 he
formed the Mono Lake Committee (MLC) as a project of the
Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society (SMBAS). The MLC
collected donations through the SMBAS while it was
incorporating.
In early 1979, the National
Audubon Society (NAS) chose Mono Lake as a
high priority campaign, but since it was seen as a regional issue,
required that most of the money for the campaign be raised by the
California chapters.
David Winkler chose to pursue a doctorate degree,
which left David Gaines and Sally Judy in charge of the
MLC. David and Sally traveled around the state showing a slide show on
Mono Lake to schools, conservation groups, legislators,
and anyone who would listen. They decided on a three-part
plan of action: legal, legislative, and educational. They
also decided to ask for exactly what they wanted, instead
of asking for more and then compromising down to the true
goal. In 1980, a Lee Vining storefront was acquired for
an office. The Mono Lake Information Center opened at
this location on Memorial Day weekend, 1979. In order to
attract more visitors, the Information Center also
functioned as the Lee Vining Chamber of Commerce.
David Gaines and Sally Judy married and had two
children. In 1988, David Gaines died in an automobile
accident near Mono Lake.
The
Committee’s Mission
The Summer 1978 Mono
Lake Newsletter stated, "The Mono Lake Committee
is a nonprofit citizen’s group dedicated to the
preservation of the scenic and wildlife values of Mono
Lake, California." By the Autumn newsletter, the
purpose broadened, and was
 "to preserve
the scenic, wildlife, and scientific values of Mono and
other Great Basin Lakes by limiting water diversions to
levels that are not environmentally destructive, to
further public interest in the natural history and
preservation of these lakes, and to facilitate relevant
research."
Soon, the focus returned to Mono Lake, and for most of
its history the mission remained as follows: "a
non-profit citizens’ group dedicated to saving Mono
Lake from the excessive diversion of water from its
tributary streams. We seek a solution that will meet the
real water needs of Los Angeles and leave our children a
living, healthy, and beautiful lake."
After succeeding in doing this with the 1994 California State Water
Resources Control Board’s Decision 1631,
the mission evolved once again, and remains today: "a
non-profit citizens’ group dedicated to protecting and restoring the Mono
Basin ecosystem, educating
the public about Mono Lake and the impacts on the
environment of excessive water use, and promoting
cooperative solutions that protect Mono Lake and meet
real water needs without transferring environmental
problems to other areas."
Protection
Litigation
In 1979, the MLC and the NAS argued in the Mono County
Superior Court that water diversions to Los Angeles did
not comply with the public trust doctrine. This legal
doctrine, which came to California law from ancient Roman
codes, states that the government has the duty to protect
navigable bodies of water for the use and benefit of all
the people. In a
1983 precedent-setting decision, the California
Supreme Court agreed with the MLC, ruling that the state
has an obligation to protect places such as Mono Lake,
"as far as feasible," even if this means a
reconsideration of past water allocation decisions.
 In 1984, California Trout, MLC, and NAS
brought suit against the City of Los Angeles charging
that their water diversions did not comply with
California Fish and Game codes. These codes require that
enough water always be allowed to flow below a dam to
keep fisheries in good condition. Eventually, the Public
Trust suit and the Fish and Game suits were combined into
one proceeding before the State Water Resources Control
Board (SWRCB), the agency which allocates water in
California.
In 1994 the SWRCB issued Decision 1631,
which set minimum flows for the streams, set limits on
water exports based on the level of Mono Lake--designed
to raise and stabilize the lake at a level 20 feet above
its lowest level, and ordered LADWP to restore the
streams and waterfowl habitat.
Legislation
As a result of the lobbying efforts of the MLC and
others, the Mono
Lake Tufa State Reserve through legislation
sponsored by State Senator John R. Garamendi was created in 1981, and in
1984 the Mono
Basin National Forest Scenic Area was created in
legislation authored by Congressman Richard Lehman. These
two designations brought resources, facilities, and
attention to the Mono Basin. Both the State Reserve and
the Scenic Area offer educational programs and visitor
services in the area, and both became involved as friends
of the court in litigation to protect Mono Lake. Also as
a result of efforts by the MLC, Mono Lake has an
international designation as a site in the Western
Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network.
Water Replacement Supplies
The MLC realized that the protection of Mono Lake
required securing adequate, environmentally sound replacement water
supplies for Los Angeles. Its goal was to help
the city meet its real water needs without increasing
pressure on other sensitive resources such as the
Bay-Delta and Colorado River. The Committee lobbied
throughout the 1980s for both state and federal
legislation which would create funding to help Los
Angeles develop water recycling facilities and pay for
water conservation programs. Conservation and recycling
in Los Angeles help the city to become more drought
tolerant, reduce the amount of pollution which is created
by waste water, and create more water annually than was
ever diverted from the Mono Basin. Two bills, AB444
sponsored by Assemblyman Phil Isenberg and
HR429 sponsored by Congressman George Miller, were passed to help fund such projects.
The MLC continues its work to promote water conservation and water
recycling policies and programs in Los Angeles and throughout
California. The Committee is actively involved in securing funding and
support for water conservation and recycling projects in Southern
California, was one of the negotiators of the state’s Best Management
Practices Agreement, and serves on the steering committee for the
California Urban Water Conservation Council.
Restoration
Since 1990, the MLC has been involved with restoring
the damaged Mono Basin streams. The MLC was a member of the Restoration
Technical Committee, which implemented various projects on the streams.
Today the Committee monitors and assists in implementation, when needed,
of the SWRCB's stream and waterfowl
habitat restoration orders. The Committee also
maintains a web-based clearinghouse of up-to-date and historical
information on the Mono Basin and the restoration program for the area.
Education
To attract attention to Mono Lake’s plight and
illustrate the beauty and importance of the lake’s
ecosystem the Committee developed a slide show, a Mono
Lake Guidebook, a calendar, a site on the World Wide Web
(www.monolake.org), an information
center and bookstore, free natural history tours, and school programs.
The Committee’s Outdoor Experiences
Program brings inner-city youth from the Los
Angeles area and elsewhere to Mono Lake to learn about this source of
L.A.’s water supply and the importance of
conservation to protection of Mono Lake and natural
areas statewide. This program also provides these young
people with the opportunity to assist with restoration
and resource management programs in the Mono Basin.
As more and more people have learned about Mono Lake,
support for its protection has grown. The Committee had
2000 members in 1980, 4000 members by 1982, and it is
currently 15,000 members strong. Please see the Mono Lake Newsletter for the
Committee’s latest accomplishments.
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