Old rage against L.A. renewed

Jonathan T. Lovitt

08/28/1997

USA Today

FINAL

Page 03A

KEELER, Calif.-- The residents of California's Owens Valley have complained

for decades about Los Angeles, 250 miles away.

In 1913, the city of Los Angeles built an aqueduct that diverted water from the

Owens River southward, to irrigate Los Angeles' suburbs, and in the process

dried up majestic Owens Lake. Los Angeles Aqueduct transformed a poky town

into the West's greatest metropolis. The Owens Valley withered.

The feud between Los Angeles and the Owens Valley is part of California lore,

documented in books and, in fictionalized form, in the 1974 movie Chinatown.

Angry valley farmers dynamited the aqueduct 10 times in 1926.

Now the people of the valley have a new complaint: the empty, 110-square-mile

lakebed Los Angeles left behind is making them sick.

Backed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Owens Valley is

demanding that Los Angeles clean up the mess, even if it means giving up some

of the water it still pumps from this watershed and partially refilling Owens

Lake.

Today, relentless desert winds whip dust laced with arsenic and other minerals

from the nearly dry lakebed thousands of feet into the air, creating furious dust

storms that limit visibility and leave many of the valley's 40,000 people gasping

with asthma attacks, allergic reactions and other respiratory problems.

The Owens Valley, wedged between the Sierra Nevada range and the Inyo

Mountains, enjoys a dubious distinction: The EPA has declared that the valley

has the worst ``particulate pollution'' in the country.

About 20 days a year, during the worst of the dust storms, monitors set up by

local air-control officials have found that pollution from dust particles soars to 25

times the federal standard of 150 microns per cubic meter.

EPA says these particles, each about one-seventh the diameter of a human hair,

constitute ``a serious air pollutant that may cause severe respiratory illnesses,''

including emphysema. ``Children, the elderly and people suffering from heart

and lung disease are especially at risk.''

The dust clouds contain ``carcinogens such as nickel, cadmium, (and) arsenic,''

EPA said in a recent fact sheet. But no agency has ever undertaken a long-term

health study of the valley, perhaps because the population is so scattered. Only

50 or so people still make their homes here in Keeler, the settlement closest to

the lakebed.

Throughout the valley, 75 miles long by 10 miles wide, residents run for cover

when the normally brilliant blue desert sky and chiseled mountains are shrouded

by miles of blinding dust.

``The storms terrify me,'' says Keeler resident Jeanne Lopez, 54, the former clerk

of Inyo County. ``There's really no way to get away from the dust. It comes in

through the windows anyway. You can't see 15 feet in front of your face.''

Fifty miles to the south in Ridgecrest, Rochelle Fulton's 8-year-old daughter,

Angela, suffers a lot. ``She starts wheezing,'' says Fulton. ``She needs all kinds

of medication, inhalers, nasal sprays.''

At nearby China Lake Naval Weapons Station, planes are grounded and the

testing of missiles comes to a halt when the storms blow through. Doppler radar

at the base shows bands of thick dust clouds that resemble thundershowers.

The locals' complaints about dust took on new legitimacy in 1993, when EPA

declared that the air was polluted and ordered state and local authorities to clean

it up.

Los Angeles was held legally responsible by the Great Basin Unified Air

Pollution Control District, the agency that oversees air quality in the Owens

Valley and adjacent areas. The city bought most of the property along the Owens

River about 90 years ago, at bargain prices, from ranchers and farmers. The lake

itself, or what is left of it, belongs to the state.

The California Air Resources Board was given until Feb. 8, 1997, to submit a

dust abatement plan. The deadline passed without any action. The Great Basin

district in July submitted a proposal, calling on Los Angeles to restore part of the

lake by reducing the water it diverts from the river. Los Angeles balked.

Last week, EPA officials, fed up by what they regarded as footdragging by the

state and the city of Los Angeles, issued a warning. ``Start cleanup by 8/20/99,

or we'll help you clean it up and your choices will be much more limited,'' said

Julia Barrow, EPA chief of air planning for the West Coast. ``Their plan is six

months overdue.''

When Los Angeles ``dried up the lake it caused a lot of suffering in the Owens

Valley,'' Barrow added. ``This really needs to be resolved soon.''

The 1999 deadline has bite to it. EPA says that if plans have not been approved

by then, it will clean up the lake itself, bill the state and impose sanctions; that

would mean the state would lose federal highway funds.

The California Air Resources Board will be leaning on Los Angeles to comply.

The city has resisted because the cleanup will be expensive. The Great Basin

district plan, which calls for flooding a 35-square-mile area near Keeler and

covering the rest of the lakebed with vegetation and gravel, could cost between

$100 million and $300 million.

Under the Great Basin scheme, the lake would be replenished by making Los

Angeles give up 51,000 acre feet of water a year, roughly 13% of the city's

annual take from the valley watershed. An acre foot serves a family of five for a

year. The city, which receives 60% of its water from the valley, would need

alternative sources of water.

Coincidentally, the EPA warning came just as Los Angeles Mayor Richard

Riordan, accompanied by several City Council members, visited the Owens

Valley last week. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which built

and still maintains the aqueduct, also sent several representatives.

Los Angeles officials say they doubt that the dust problem is as grave as valley

residents claim. ``They say about 300 tons of dust a year blow off the lake,'' says

Jerry Gewe, director of water resources for Los Angeles. ``Our numbers say it's

more like 12. That's a huge difference.''

The two sides reportedly found little common ground, though Los Angeles has

promised to draft its plan by the end of September.

But suspicion of Los Angeles and its powerful water department still abounds in

the valley. ``The DWP has a history of using questionable tactics,'' says Richard

Knox, 54, a retired employee of the Department of Water and Power who makes

his home in Bishop.

Knox and about 40 other demonstrators confronted Riordan at a cookout last

week, carrying signs demanding the city do something about the dust. ``Try a

little arsenic and cadmium in your barbecue sauce for that true Owens Valley

flavor,'' read one sign.

GRAPHIC, B/W, Bob Laird, USA TODAY ,Source: Environmental Protection

Agency(Map); PHOTOS, B/W, Richard and Jeanne Lopez(2)