By
1913, the City had purchased much of the water rights in the Owens
Valley and had completed the Los Angeles Aqueduct to divert most of the
remaining water in the Owens River south to Los Angeles.
As a result, the lakebed has been essentially dry since the late
1920s. As the lake dried
up, the dissolved minerals and salts in the water crystallized into an
alkali salt crust that covers most of the lakebed today. Dust blowing from the dry lakebed is the major contributor to violations of the federal particulate (dust) standard in the extreme southern Owens Valley. In 1983 the state legislature passed a bill that authorized the Air Pollution Control District (APCD) to require the City to provide reasonable mitigation of air quality impacts associated with its water gathering activities while at the same time protecting the City's water rights from interference by the APCD. Both the City and the APCD supported this compromise solution. |
