Aqueduct Legacies | Aqueduct Futures Barry Lehrman Assistant - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative 2014 Aqueduct Legacies | Aqueduct Futures Barry Lehrman Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture Cal Poly Pomona

100 years of change since Mulholland said ‘There it is - take it!’ • A century of imported water enabled Los Angeles to emerge as a global city • US and California environmental regulations now limit inter-basin water transfers and protect ecological water needs • 50% of water in the Los Angeles Aqueduct System is now used in the Owens Valley for dust mitigation and enhanced mitigation projects • Conservation and development of local water supply is reducing the demand for imported water Still • The City of Los Angeles faces signifjcant political and legal liabilities related to the continued operations of the Los Angeles Aqueduct 2

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The Water-Energy Nexus • It takes lots of energy to supply water Source: www.westernresourceadvocates.org/water/images/ energyintensity.gif • It takes lots of water to supply energy Min - Max total in CA % of CA Wind 0 - 1.06 Gal/MWH 13 GWH 6.3% Solar PV 0 - 3.96 Gal/MWH 1 GWH 0.90% Concentrated Solar Power 766 - 1004 Gal/MWH 675 GWH NGCC 129 - 502 Gal/MWH 13,100 GWH 43% IGCC (Coal) 173 - 1,830 Gal/MWH 22,700 GWH 7.5% Conventional Coal 520 - 1,041 Gal/MWH Nuclear 581 - 898 Gal/MWH 27,300 GWH 9.0% Geothermal 1400 - 1,796 Gal/MWH 13,400 GWH 4.4% Biomass 7,100 GWH 2.3% Hydro n/a 43,600 GWH 9.8% 6

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1923 Owens Valley 1970 2nd LA Aqueduct pumping 1941 Mono Crater Tunnel 2001 Owens Lake Dust Project 2005 LORP 8

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Benefjts for the Owens Valley Legacy of LADWP ownership: • Preserved open space (not habitat) • Mitigated dust from Owens Lake Alternate histories: • Owens Valley would be like Fresno and the rest of the Central Valley - a sprawl of industrial agriculture and housing subdivisions -or - • Owens Valley National Park (we can dream) Source: Robert A. Sauder, Patenting an Arid Frontier: Use and Abuse of the Public Land Laws in Owens Valley, California. Annals of the Association of American Geographers , Vol. 79, No. 4 (Dec., 1989), pp.544-569. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2563647 11

Impacts to Owens Valley • Limited jobs available beyond tourism, working for the LADWP or Sparkletts • LADWP manages their real estate holdings to limit water use, not to maximize rents or their return on investment leading to blight • The Owens Valley is a food desert with little locally grown food available to the community • Loss of wetlands and groundwater dependent vegetation across the Valley • Severe wind-caused soil erosion and dust that causes public health issues 12

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Aqueduct Futures Scenarios: Owens Valley Status Quo LADWP continues existing water & property practices Increased mitigation, without property = management reforms Land-Use Policy = $ BILLIONS OF LIABILITY & CONTINUED POLITICAL COSTS POLITICAL COSTS Status Reduced H2O Water Exports Quo H20 Exports Establishing a conservation easement Ecological restoration & economic growth -or- = PEACE Transfer non-essential LADWP land to another agency = REDUCED ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITIES Divestment 14

Big Picture: Opportunities for the Owens Valley Mono Lake Roadless Area Conservation MONO BASIN Inventoried Roadless Areas where road construction or reconstruction is allowed Benton Valley Inventoried Roadless Areas where Overhauling LADWP property management policies: M O road construction or reconstruction is NOT allowed Grant C N R O A T U T E Lake N R Inventoried Roadless Areas where N E L road construction or reconstruction is NOT allowed and the forest plan recommends as Wilderness Designated Areas outside of Inventoried Roadless Areas • Increase property values and rents for Los Angeles Hammil Valley Benton Range L o n g V a l l e y • Enables local economic determination Lake Crowley Chalfant Valley MONO COUNTY INYO COUNTY Volcanic Tableland Round SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS Valley Reforming LADWP’s open space policies or transferring Bishop W H I T Tungsten E Hills M O U N T A I N management to another agency could: S Big Pine • Enhance the management of natural resources CRATER MOUNTAIN Tinemaha • Develop cultural and recreation resources for tourism Poverty Reservoir Hills C r f s i B h a l h c a k r t c o G o o d a l e c h e k r y C r e e k n i s o D i v i e e k C r m i l l a w S e k C e r T h i b a u t e k i f C r e s W O a k h M h h o r t h o N a t i u t n n c e t h y e Independence If 100% of Owens River water can remain in the Valley: r O a k y C h r e e o u t k S I n d e p e n d e e e k n c C r e e e k C r S y e k m m e C r e s S h e p h e r d • Refjlling Owens Lake (~20 years) R r i v C e s r r i a B h r e k t C e o r s C r N a r i B e h g t e o r A o u G S l a b a H C r o g b a c k m Lone Pine a 10 20 30 40 MILES INYO MOUNTAINS C r H n e e P i L o n i l l s • Raises the water table to regenerates alkali meadows and other MOUNT WHITNEY + 10 20 30 40 KILOMETERS 14,497' C t e l C r r e e k T u t D a i z C r b k i n N L u C r e e o l l k C a r r C o t t o n w o o d signifjcant plant communities (5-50 years) C r e e k S I E R TULARE COUNTY R A N E V A D A M O U N T A I N S Coso Range er Haiwee Reservoir 15

Big Picture: Multi-Functional Infrastructure Doing more with less : • Beyond ‘green infrastructure’ for storm water to ‘living aqueducts‘ • Cultural uses • Ecological uses • Economic uses beyond the temporary: nurseries, storage/parking 16

Big Picture: Towards Resilience and Adaptation Global population growth and global warming: • Water is going to become more expensive and scarce • Shifts of water use from ag to cities, Shift to low H20 energy sources • Increase development of local water for urban supply with recycled H20 & increased capture of rainwater - decreases need for imported water and large-scale storage • Regulation of groundwater is necessary, as is overhauling California’s water rights system • Regulations must address the Water-Energy Nexus 17

Next Steps towards Peace • ‘Los Angeles Aqueduct Master Plan’ (and ‘Colorado River Aqueduct Master Plan’) that focuses on multi-functional uses for the land and region • Legislation authorizing a National Park Service Special Resources Study of the Owens Valley • Publication of all LADWP water and property data on data.lacity.org, and assist Inyo County’s Assessor mapping the LADWP’s real estate holdings • Policies to cut water use in LA by 50% • Regulations to ensure safe and low energy recycling of water by limiting contaminants in consumer goods that are hard to remove 18

Thank You! blehrman@csupomona.edu www.aqueductfutures.com