DWP lawsuits over water rights may put squeeze on Mammoth Lakes (LA Times)

[pinto]

Water, in so many ways, essentially defines the West ~ pinto

DWP lawsuits over water rights may put squeeze on Mammoth Lakes

The L.A. utility and the tiny Mammoth Community Water District wrangle for control of the city's primary water source in a costly court battle.

By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
June 29, 2012

MAMMOTH LAKES — The people of this small High Sierra ski town have survived drought, forest fires and earthquakes. They have endured economic recessions and volcano scares. But nothing in their history prepared them for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

The DWP launched a legal attack six months ago for control of the city's primary source of water, Mammoth Creek, which tumbles down the slopes through town. The utility contends it has owned the water since 1905 and Mammoth Lakes has been poaching for decades.

The tiny Mammoth Community Water District says that if it loses the lawsuits, the district would have to buy water from the DWP. That would force the district to raise average rates to levels many locals cannot afford — increasing them by at least 100%, to about $840 a year, one district official said.

The 7,700 year-round residents are largely working-class employees catering to vacationers who travel 300 miles north from Los Angeles. Forty percent are low-income.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mammoth-water-20120629,0,5547575.story

[JDPriestly]

1. Living in Los Angeles, I think that the City of Los Angeles, sooner or later, is going to

have to put a moratorium on building permits for new housing. We just don't have enough water for more bodies to bathe, for more thirst to quench, and I don't think we every will.

Apparently, the City wants to permit a giant housing development in the Hollywood area. The residents of that area are furious about it -- and in part because of the city-wide water shortage.

We have to limit growth not because we are Socialists but because we just do not have enough water. Many of us are trying to convert our front yards to drought resistant plantings -- succulents and others plants that need little water. These plants are not as pretty as petunias, and they don't feel as good to your feet as grass -- but without water, no petunias, no grass.

Thus, our biggest problem in LA is our water shortage.

Of course, we live on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, an ocean that is likely to claim the land along our coasts as the icebergs melt. But . . . . how to turn all that water into something usable on land? Apparently that takes too much energy and is too difficult.

Meanwhile, we bathe in the ocean of sunshine-energy above us, but can't figure out a way to turn it into the energy we need to turn the salty ocean water into stuff we can bathe in and drink.

You'd think that JPL could turn its creative minds toward a simple earthly task like that, wouldn't you? After all they have figured out how to land on Mars. Turning saltwater into potable water shouldn't be too hard for them. But, so far no help from that quarter as far as I know. (I could be wrong about this.)

Lack of ingenuity if you want to ask me. Lack of public will. Lack of political will.

[pinto]

2. Agree. All the West, and LA especially, has to address water. Long term, big picture.

The Colorado barely makes it to the ocean as it is. And reliance on the Sierra snow pack / lakes / reservoirs may get iffy or over burdened.

We're all in this together.