Water Justice
The Eastern Sierra supplies up to 55% of Los Angeles’s water supply each year through the Los Angeles Aqueduct. First constructed in 1913, the development of the LA Aqueduct required extensive land and water purchases by the City of Los Angeles, who now owns over 300,000 acres in the Eastern Sierra. As the primary holder of private lands and water rights in Payahuunadü, also known as the Owens Valley, Los Angeles has affected tribes and local communities.
While water extraction began in 1913, it greatly increased in 1970 with the completion of the second aqueduct. Los Angeles expanded its groundwater pumping to the detriment of ecosystems across the region. Legal battles between Inyo County, Los Angeles, and environmental organizations ensued, eventually leading to the development of the 1991 Inyo-LA Long Term Water Agreement. Under this agreement, there are provisions in place to manage groundwater pumping and mitigate impacts on the environment. However, the land has never fully recovered from increased groundwater pumping, and many local organizations and tribes are still working to keep Los Angeles accountable for its impacts on the Eastern Sierra.
Without a shared understanding of how water extraction impacts our communities and what has been lost, it is difficult to imagine a better water future. Much of the information on water management and its impacts has been obscured by the technical and bureaucratic implementation of the 1991 Long Term Water Agreement and other governing documents. Information on water must be made more accessible to the local communities so that we are all enabled to participate in management and stewardship of our most precious resource.
Friends of the Inyo is working in partnership with the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission and Accelerate Resilience Los Angeles to build awareness of how water extraction impacts communities on both ends of the LA Aqueduct. Revealing Payahuunadü is a program intended to share information on the impacts of water extraction in Inyo and Mono Counties and help the community envision a healthier future for people and the land. We believe that being fully informed on the past, present, and future conditions of water will equip our communities to advocate for a better water future. Water is life, and the well-being of all depends on protecting and stewarding our watershed.
Friends of the Inyo is also a founding member of the Eastern Sierra Water Alliance (ESWA) along with the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission and Sierra Club’s Toiyabe Chapter Range of Light Group. ESWA is committed to bringing water justice to the people and ecosystems of Payahuunadü. We are not satisfied with the status quo, where LADWP extracts large volumes of water to Los Angeles while local communities and the environment suffer the consequences. ESWA strives for more equitable water management in Payahuunadü (Eastern Sierra) that fulfills local human needs and ecosystem rights. We aim to hold the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to account, demanding that they uphold existing commitments to undo the damage they have caused, and fighting to keep more water in Payahuunadü where it belongs.
For more information on Revealing Payahuunadu, click here.
For more information on Eastern Sierra Water Alliance, click here.
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