Restoration Update
Future plans of the State Water Resources Control Board include reviewing proposals for the restoration of Mono Lake's damaged streams and waterfowl habitat.
The proposals, produced by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP), contain significant flaws, and the Committee will be joined by California Trout, the Department of Fish and Game, the State Lands Commission, and others in presenting improvements to the Water Board (for a review of DWP's proposals, see Newsletter, Summer 1996, 5Ð6).
Over the summer, DWP was able to test one portion of its restoration strategy: augmenting flows in Rush Creek with water diverted from Lee Vining Creek. The plan, which is intended to create high peak flows without constructing a new outlet facility at Grant Lake Dam, requires backing water up in the aqueduct so it spills out a relief structure and down a concrete channel to Rush Creek. However, with the aqueduct "sealed" and an inflow of 50 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water, the promised spill failed to happen due to leakage at the "seal." Later experiments with 100 cfs of water also failed to produce a spill, pointing to the need for a reliable outlet structure which will achieve the high peak flows needed for Rush Creek restoration (see page 7 for another augmentation problem).
Restoration planning is proceeding as part of the 1994 Water Board decision. Restoration work is intended to partially make up for losses, such as stream desiccation and habitat destruction, caused by DWP's fifty years of water diversions.
Return to Fall 96 Newsletter
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