In the spotlight recently are the serious environmental problems happening where the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta meets the San Francisco Bay. While many miles away from Mono Lake, the troubles of the Bay-Delta can be eased by the same wise water uses that helped protect Mono--water conservation and water recycling. At the same time, solutions to the state's pressing water problems will help avert future demands for additional Mono Basin water.

The crux of the conflict now at hand in the Bay-Delta is how to protect the nearly 700-mile region, which provides over 70,000 acres of wetlands and is home to over 120 species of fish and wildlife, while meeting the needs of urban and agricultural water users.

Currently, pumping plants in the Bay-Delta transfer millions of acre-feet of water into the California Aqueduct and Central Valley Project canals. Over 20 million Californians get their drinking water from this system. Over four million acres of farmland are irrigated. And the natural flow of water in the Bay-Delta is reversed, killing millions of fish and decimating California's most important wetland.

Martha Davis, former executive director and current board member of the Mono Lake Committee, works with the Bay-Delta Advisory Committee and helps the Mono Lake Committee weigh in on the CalFed process, particularly in support of wiser, more efficient policies governing the use of water statewide.

Many Californians do not realize that the success of Mono Lake's protection--achieved without significant water losses to Los Angeles--can be repeated elsewhere in the state. California has enough water to meet both the needs of the economy and nature, now and in the future.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and other water districts, particularly in Southern California, are beginning to acknowledge this fact. Over the last few years DWP has committed staff and funds for conservation, water recycling, and groundwater management. The results are impressive. In Los Angeles, despite a population increase of one million people, residents are using water at levels seen in the 1970s. The Mono Lake Committee helped raise federal and state funds for some of LA's environmentally sound water supply programs, more than offsetting the water now committed to the protection and restoration of the Mono Basin ecosystem.

The CalFed process is expected to produce a plan by December 1998 outlining the next steps the federal and state governments will take to restore the Bay-Delta ecosystem--and to manage the water supply coming from this ecosystem. The Mono Lake Committee will be posting information on the Internet at www.monolake.org as the recommendations unfold. Your help will be needed to steer this recommendation in a direction that will ensure people and the environment have fair shares of California's water.

Creeks flow high: A large winter snowpack combined with hot July weather to raise Sierra reservoirs to the spilling point and send high flows rushing down Mono Basin streams. The high flows were aided by good communication between the reservoir operators--the LA Department of Water and Power and Edison--who to a certain degree can coordinate the timing of releases to maximize flows downstream. Seasonal peak flows not only raise Mono Lake, but also provide the dynamic energy needed to restore pools, riffles, and meander bends in the streams. They help willows and cottonwoods establish themselves along the banks, which in turn capture sediment and rebuild stream banks. High flows during the early summer snowmelt period are considered by scientists to be one of the most important mechanisms for restoring the stream habitats and processes that were eliminated by DWP's 50 years of water diversions.