Mono Lake Committee seeks to end diversions

Organization asks state to intervene

The Mono Lake Committee last month submitted a request to the California State Water Resources Control Board for an emergency action to protect Mono Lake by addressing the developing ecological crisis due to the lake surface elevation having fallen below 6,380 feet above sea level, which threatens the nesting California Gull population and dangerously increases lake salinity, according to the organization.

The committee requested that the state issue an emergency regulation, or take other action, suspending the export of water diverted from Rush and Lee Vining creeks and requiring delivery of that water into Mono Lake until Mono Lake has risen to 6,384 feet above sea level.

The committee states that Mono Lake is dangerously low due to the legacy of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) water diversions, worsened by recent drought. This means that predators can cross exposed lakebed to access critical nesting islands, and that high salinity in violation of federal standards is impairing the lake ecosystem.

The committee states that the current situation is well established as an emergency, in substantial part by the state Water Board’s own analysis for its landmark protection action inn Decision

1631 (D1631). After 28 years, the Board and all parties expected the level of Mono Lake to be much higher, eliminating the challenge of predators using the landbridge.

But with the lake instead lingering at the present low level, immediate action is necessary to achieve the public trust protections for Mono Lake set forth in D1631, according to the committee.

In 1994 the board concluded that water is the “nature-based solution” that ensures protection of the nesting gulls and a host of public trust resources, and that Mono Lake must be managed at a level 14 feet higher than it is now.