Environmental Stewardship

As stewards of the Eastern Sierra, we use best management practices to protect water quality, habitat, biodiversity, and endangered and threatened species throughout the Owens Valley, Long Valley, and Mono Basin watersheds. To support these efforts, we leave approximately half of the water that was historically exported to Los Angeles in the Eastern Sierra. We currently have over 100 environmental initiatives in Inyo and Mono counties focused on protecting and sustaining the environment. These include restoring 63 miles of the Lower Owens River through our rewatering efforts and improving 78,000 acres of land along the river. Additionally, we have enhanced nearly 2,000 acres of wetlands to support the local ecology of the Lower Owens River. Further, LADWP has invested $2.5 billion in EPA-approved dust control measures in Owens Valley, successfully reducing dust emissions from Owens Lake by 99.4%, bringing them well within the attainment of environmental standards.

Below are some of the current environmental efforts we are working on.