The Struggle Between the Owens Valley and Los Angeles over Water
This paper will discuss the conflict between the residents of the Owens Valley and the city of Los Angeles through the end of the 1920s over the appropriation of water in the Owens Valley by the city. The first part of the paper will examine the background of the controversy. The second part of the paper will describe the high point of the struggle in the middle part of the 1920s. The last part of the paper will discuss the outcome and the ramifications of this struggle.
Located on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, the Owens River drainage system is long and narrow, extending 120 miles from the Mono divide to Owens Lake. Near the Mono divide, the floor of the valley is about 8000 feet above sea level; there is a drop of 2200 feet from the end of the Long Valley to Owens Valley proper in a distance of about 20 miles. With an advantage of an initial elevation of about 4000 feet, it is possible to divert water from the river at a point some thirty miles above the lake, cross the hills at the lower end of the Sierra Nevada, cross the Mojave Desert, and flow it through tunnels in the Coast Range to the San Fernando Valley, all by gravity flow. Most of the river's discharge consists of snow melt from the Sierra Nevada (Ostrom 11-12).
Both the Owens Valley and the Los Angeles Basin are arid in climate, receiving about the same amount of annual precipitation. The main difference is that the Owens Valley is situated next to the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which receives a considerable amount of snowfall each year. Thus, the valley's main water supply comes from the runoff of the melting snowpack; this runoff feeds the Owens River and contributes to the groundwater in the valley. The Los Angeles basin, on the other hand, receives a lesser amount of water from snowpack runoff in the San Gabriel mountains. The growing population of Los Angeles at the end...