Owens Lake
Owens Lake in California. Photo by Charles Webber, California Academy of Sciences.
DB: This is Earth and Sky. Owens Lake, at the base of California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains, was once a large saline lake surrounded by a lush valley of saltgrass meadows.
JB: In 1913, Los Angeles began diverting snowmelt water south to the city. And, by the 1920s, Owens Lake was dry. The lack of water had dire consequences. Winds – sweeping down the mountains and across the lake bed – created toxic dust storms that made people sick for miles around. By the 1970s, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Owens Valley had the worst particulate pollution in the country.
DB: But now a program is underway to re-hydrate Owens Lake and to prevent the dust from being kicked up by the wind. Part of the lakebed will be planted with a salt-tolerant native grass, and part will be covered with a thin sheet of water. Owens Lake won’t be the lake it was, but it will be a shallow inland sea or mud flat.
JB: Before water was diverted, Owens Lake was a major stopover for thousands of migrating shorebirds and waterfowl. Conservationists expect this to happen again. An algae carpet growing in the shallow water will be food for the brine fly, and the brine fly attracts birds – ducks, geese, sandpipers, and more.
DB: Special thanks today to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and to the U.S. Forest Service. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.
The following individuals were interviewed for today’s program. Our thanks to:
Mike Prather
President
Owens Valley Committee
Theodore Schade
Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District
The following books, articles and web sites were used in preparing this script:
Redoff, J., “Dried-up California lake gets muddy facial”, Science News, Vol. 160, December 1, 2001
Marith C. Reheis, Marith C., U.S. Geological Survey, “Owens (Dry) Lake, California: A Human-Induced Dust Problem”, Journal of Geophysical Research
Author’s Notes:
Dust from the lake bed contains carcinogens such as nickel, cadmium, and arsenic, as well as salt, iron, calcium, potassium, sulfur, aluminum, and magnesium. On windy days, as much as 11 tons of toxic dust, laced with arsenic and cadmium, fill the valley’s air. pollution levels around the dry lake bed during dust storms have at times been hundreds of times higher than national clean air standards
The plan to re-hydrate Owens Lake reflects an agreement between the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and has been approved by the state Air Resources Board. The EPA deadline for the project is 2006.
The plot of the movie “Chinatown.” was a fictionalized version of the secret project and insider land speculation it fostered.
LA isn’t going to be needed less water in the future. Where will the city get the water that’s being “lost” to Owens Lake? Plans include water re-use, water conservation, and buying more water from the metropolital water district.
Additional Teacher Resources
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9 News Releases: U.S. EPA Proposes to Approve Owens Valley Dust Control Plan
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved an historic clean air plan for the Owens Valley in 1999, which had been plagued by dust storms rising from the dry bed of Owens Lake for over half a century. These dust storms created the worst levels of particulate air pollution in the entire United States. This article explains how the lake dried out, and what was done to remedy the air pollution situation.
NASA, Desert USA: Why Owens Lake is Red!
One of nature’s most remarkable biological phenomena is the reddish coloration of salt lakes and playas. This site gives the explanation of why these sites including Owens lake are red.
U.S. Geological Survey, Impacts of Climate Change of the Land Surface: Owens Lake, California: A Human-Induced Dust Problem
Populations are growing rapidly in large parts of the arid regions of the southwestern United States. As a result, stresses are increasing on fragile desert surfaces and on water supplies in an area where water is a precious commodity. Nearly all of the available surface water has already been claimed and diverted for human use, and ground water is now tapped for new water supplies. This article explains how this use and diversion of water for human use created severe economic problems at Owens Lake.
