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Every Last Drop A Newsletter From the Keep Long Valley Green Coalition

Above Photo of a snow blower widening the road in Long Valley last week

Volume 3 - Issue 1 | January 2023

Here we are: the first Every Last Drop of Volume 3 and of 2023. Thank you for reading, sharing, and supporting Every Last Drop. Help us grow and continue to publish by encouraging your family and friends to sign up or by donating on our website.

All This Water

but what will LADWP do with it?

by Allison Weber

It is not breaking news by now that between Dec. 27th and Jan. 16th California was hit with several massive storms.

Nine separate atmospheric rivers, narrow regions of deep moisture generated by ocean storms, dumped 20 feet of snow in Mammoth Lakes and an estimated 300 to 400 inches of snow in the snowiest locations high between Yosemite and Mount Whitney. About 32 trillion gallons of water fell on California in only three weeks.

Three months ago, 41% of the state was in severe or exceptional drought. Now, most of the state is "only" in moderate or severe drought. Meanwhile, the Colorado River which supplies water to seven western states, including large communities within them, like Los Angeles, is overcommitted and, as a result of climate change, under-replenished. As The Los Angeles Times predicts a "water reckoning" in the west due to the Colorado River Crisis, eyes across the nation turn to California and ask: You have all this water, why can't you capture it?

Right Comments on posts about January's rain on the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times' Instagram pages

An estimated 5 billion to 10 billion gallons of water fell on the Los Angeles Basin in early January, yet only about 20% was captured in the county. Most flowed out to sea, picking up pesticides/herbicides, oils and grease, heavy metals, trash, bacteria, and other contaminants from communities along the way. Storm runoff is the leading source of pollution to Angelenos' waterways: 100 million gallons of storm runoff is dumped into rivers and coastal waterways even on dry days, with impacts on wildlife, marine quality, and human health, according to Keep Long Valley Green partner, Los Angeles Waterkeeper.

Failing to adequately capture stormwater, and treat it, is both a pollution issue and a water sourcing issue. For every drop of its own water that it fails to harness, L.A. has to buy, rather expensively, water from the California Aqueduct or the Colorado Aqueduct, or further degrade the Eastern Sierra with diversions, dewatering, and pumping.

Once upon a time, the flushing of all this water down the drain was a relevant strategy. Flooding occurs naturally in the Los Angeles area, and this was a huge risk for the developing city. In 1914, a flood hit the young city of Los Angeles, resulting in $10 million in damages. Soon after, the Los Angeles County Flood Control District was established in attempt to control mother nature's occasional deluge.

Construction of the Devil's Gate Dam, 1920

The Los Angeles County Flood Control District began trapping the water through the construction of the Devil's Gate Dam in 1920, with water collecting in reservoirs above the dam. Communities below the dam were protected from flooding. The district then completed the construction of 13 more dams between 1920 and 1939, replicating the process.

Yet these dams alone were not enough for the growing metropolis. In 1938, a series of storms caused massive flooding, inundating parts of Los Angeles and wiping out bridges, leading to a death toll exceeding 100 people and the destruction of an estimated 5,600 homes. Those floods caused about $70 million in damage.

Vehicles swamped by flooding at West 43rd Place near Leimert Boulevard during the 1938 flood. Photo from the Los Angeles Times Archives.

The risk of such an event occurring again led to the channelizing of the L.A. River, the process of straightening, deepening, or otherwise attempting to make rivers more stable for human developments and use. The L.A. River was paved with about 3.5 million barrels of cement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over 20 years, destroying the existing ecosystem and basically creating a 51 mile-long trough of concrete designed to drain the city as soon as possible.

This system jeopardizes environmental health and the future of Los Angeles by continuing to do exactly what it was designed to do, sweeping 600,000 acre feet of water or 196 billion gallons of stormwater out to the sea in an average year. In comparison, the Los Angeles Basin imports about 750,000 acre feet of water or 244 billion gallons from both Northern California and the Sierras. Currently, 90% of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's (LADWP) water supply is imported, with just 10% coming from local sources. Meaningfully increasing investment in stormwater capture projects could go along way toward reducing Los Angeles' reliance on outside water, for the good of communities on both ends of the pipe.

Investing in Our Future

Stormwater capture is thought to occur in two ways: 1. direct catchment, as seen in the case of putting a rain barrel next to your drain spout to collect rain from a roof; and 2. by directing runoff away from impervious surfaces (like concrete, asphalt, etc.) and into open spaces, where it can infiltrate the ground and recharge groundwater (like sumps).

The Pacific Institute, a water think tank based in Oakland, estimates that the state of California could capture 580,000 acre-feet of stormwater in urban areas even in a dry year, and up to 3 million acre-feet of stormwater in a wet year. In fact, the biggest water-saving potential is thought to be in Southern California, including Los Angeles, due to the many areas in which stormwater could be captured. For example, about 98% of the San Gabriel River naturally replenishes aquifers through its porous bottom of gravel and sand. The L.A. River, on the other hand, loses about 90% of its flow to the Pacific Ocean as a result of impervious asphalt and concrete. Simply allowing groundwater recharge in more areas by removing impervious conditions could help capture more water as well as mitigate flood risk at the same time.

LADWP's only active stormwater capture project is in the San Fernando Groundwater Basin, where about 27,000 acre-feet, or 8.8 billion gallons, of stormwater is captured each year at centralized spreading grounds. How much more could be captured if similar projects were employed and expanded throughout Los Angeles?

LADWP partially answers this question in their 2015 Stormwater Capture Master Plan, identifying more opportunities for stormwater capture. Don't get too excited though, this "plan" is really more of a guiding document, outlining strategies and recommendations for future projects. There is no actual plan for these projects. On the other hand, LADWP boasts great conservation success in their 2020 Urban Water Management Plan, despite the fact that it does not plan to reduce water extraction from the Eastern Sierra through 2045, failing to share this success with those of us at the top of the pipe.

Left Nature trying hard to reclaim the L.A. River, as seen in this photo snapped during Walking Water's June 2022 "Walks of Resilience" event, attended by Keep Long Valley Green

30 to 50 years

In 2018, Los Angeles County voters approved Measure W, which taxes residents 2.5 cents per square foot of impermeable surface on their parcels. The measure is estimated to raise 300 million dollars a year and serves two main purposes:

1. Cleaning up stormwater that contaminates the nearby coast

2. Capturing more of said stormwater for use before it reaches the ocean.

The ultimate goal: To capture 300,000 acre-feet of water (98 billion gallons) annually. That is exciting, yet in 2022, it was estimated that it would take 30 to 50 years for larger projects under Measure W to be built out.

If you consider 30 to 50 years for Measure W, and no plans for reduction in water extraction from the Eastern Sierra until 2045, it seems that change, when it is even planned at all, is slow.

Right A sliver of Dana Glacier, visible above Dana Lake, just outside Yosemite National Park in late September 2022.

Can the Eastern Sierra afford 30 to 50 years of the status quo among worsening drought? Climate scientists suggest not. 2050 is less than 30 years from now, but that is the year that most are banking dire predictions upon.

A study out of Lawrence Berkeley Lab suggests California’s Sierra Nevada could actually see most of its snowpack disappear before 2050, meaning we are likely to see more years like 2016, when the Sierra Nevada saw only about five percent of its average snowpack, for five to ten years in a row.

The State Department of Water Resources predicts that temperature increases of 1 to 3 degrees Celsius are expected to reduce the Sierra Nevada snowpack by 25 to 40 percent by 2050, and then by up to 65 percent by the end of the century. A difference of just a few degrees can turn a storm that should be snow into rain, causing major problems for unprepared cities, as we have seen recently, and resulting in a critical loss of the crucial water storage that snow provides, steadily releasing into waterways as it melts throughout the spring and summer.

The Eastern Sierra cannot afford to continue in the status quo, losing more water than can be replenished. Los Angeles cannot afford to continue to rely on what won't be there if LADWP officials keep dragging their heels. Investments in self sufficiency needed to be prioritized yesterday or, as we would have preferred, long before the second barrel of the L.A. aqueduct was ever turned on. We will settle for today.

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Upper Owens River with snow covered Glass Mountain Ridge in the background, January 2023

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January Wrap-up:

Want to join our grassroots effort to protect the Eastern Sierra?

Sign up as a volunteer for Keep Long Valley Green! Our community coalition needs assistance in a variety of activities- whether they be artistic, technical, or communication related. You can help us Keep Long Valley Green!

Here are some ways you could help: art, photography, tabling at events, creating social media assets, grant writing, op-ed/article writing, and more. Have a skill you could share? Let us know:

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Without Water is Now Streaming Online!

Without Water has finished its film festival circuit- you can now watch our film, Without Water, for FREE, online, anytime!

Help us in a big way by doing something small: spread the message of Keep Long Valley Green by simply sending people in your contacts (and especially Los Angeles residents) the link to Without Water.

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Get Engaged!

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Credits:

Allison Weber photo credits unless otherwise stated