ICWD Home > Research and Reports > Annual Reports > 

Director's Report - by Bob Harrington

The past year has been marked by changes for the Water Department.  The Water Department’s offices relocated from Bishop to Independence early this summer, and last fall, Tom Brooks stepped down as director and I took over as director.  While these overlapping transitional events made for a challenging year, our mission and focus remains the same as in years past: to assist in implementation of the County’s water resources policies through the Water Agreement and Groundwater Ordinance.  This mission is accomplished through four general work efforts: oversight of LADWP water management; monitoring to assess impacts of LADWP activities; planning, monitoring, and implementation of mitigation measures associated with the Water Agreement, and assessments related to projects associated with the County Groundwater Ordinance.

Oversight of  LADWP’s water management activities through the provisions of the Water Agreement is a critical task for the Department (see Groundwater Conditions and Current Pumping).  The Water Agreement provides for the Water Department and LADWP to jointly manage groundwater pumping by monthly monitoring of soil moisture and plant water requirements at key monitoring sites, and turning wells on or off according to the monitoring results (see Soil Water Conditions).  The technical appendix to the Water Agreement, the “Green Book,” describes the methods and protocols for conducting the measurements and analysis to manage pumping.  Since this monitoring was initiated nearly twenty years ago, it has been recognized by both the Department and LADWP that changes to the Green Book are necessary to make pumping management more effective.  In 2006, an Interim Management Plan was adopted by the Standing Committee, and since then we have been working with LADWP to modify the pumping management methods.  Rather than basing management on soil moisture and plant water requirements, we are developing methods that will base management on changes in water table elevation, thereby linking pumping management directly to the hydrologic variable most directly affected by pumping.  The Interim Management Plan holds pumping from wells management under the Water Agreement’s “on/off” provisions to levels predicted to maintain 2007 water levels.

The Department has continued its annual program of monitoring vegetation conditions and assessing the status of vegetation relative to the mid-1980’s baseline conditions established by the Water Agreement (see Vegetation Conditions).  Assessment of vegetation conditions tells us whether our management strategies are meeting the goals of the Water Agreement.

The Water Agreement specifies over fifty mitigation measures.  In relation to these mitigation measures, the Department’s activities include implementing the Saltcedar control program (see Saltcedar Update), joint development of plans for the 1,600 acre-feet/year of water allocated to Hines Spring and other projects, participation in the Rapid Assessment Survey of the Lower Owens River, and identifying problems with particular mitigation projects (see Mitigation Status).  With water finally flowing in the Lower Owens River Project, we have been working with LADWP to finalize joint funding mechanisms for the project.  Also, this past spring Ecosystem Sciences Inc., the consultant for the LORP, issued their final draft Monitoring and Adaptive Management Plan (following seven prior drafts).  The past year has been a transition from the planning and initiation stages to the implementation stage of the LORP.

The Planning Department is developing an EIR for Coso Operating Company’s proposed interbasin groundwater transfer from Rose Valley to the Coso geothermal field.  This project proposes to pump water from agricultural wells in Rose Valley, pipe the water nine miles into the Coso Range, and inject the water into the geothermal field to enhance power generation.   The Department has assisted the Planning Department in processing this permit application and developing the EIR by assisting in evaluation of hydrologic impacts of the proposed project and making recommendations for monitoring and mitigation of potential impacts of the project.  The Department has also assisted the Planning Department in evaluating hydrologic analyses related to the Yucca Mountain Project.  The Yucca Mountain Project filed their site application this summer with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and it is currently under review.

Many challenges are anticipated in the upcoming year.  In addition to the core activities described above, as agreed to in the Interim Management Plan, we will soon begin a joint assessment of groundwater resources beneath Owens Lake for the purpose of supplying water to LADWP’s dust abatement activities on the lake.  The Water Agreement will regulate any LADWP pumping from Owens Lake.  Potential impacts, mitigations, and management strategies will have to be identified in a hydrologic setting quite different from other LADWP wellfields.