Owens Lake Dust Mitigation Team

[Started created this directory of the consultants and contractors being utilized by the LADWP while working on my thesis – but didn’t get very far – still it’s worth sharing. I’d be interested to learn about more of the contractors, consultants, and researchers out there… #mammothbook]

[note, there isn’t any logic to the sequence of the list, so don’t even try to figure it out]

City of Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power
Brian Tillemans

Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District
Ted Schade, Projects Manager

Inyo County Water Department
Contact_Person: Chris Howard
Contact_Position: GIS Specialist/System Administrator
Address: 163 May St.
City: Bishop
State_or_Province: CA
Postal_Code: 93514
Contact_Voice_Telephone: 760-872-1168
Hours_of_Service: 9:00 AM – 5:00P

Preliminary Research into dust control techniques:
Gill, T.E., Cahill, T.A., Copeland, S.A., and White, B.R., 2003. Sand fences for control of wind erosion and dust emission at Owens Lake, CA: 1. Full-scale testing, field deployment, and evaluation of effectiveness. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Wind Engineering, Lubbock, TX, June 2003, vol. 2, pp. 2773- 2780.
Cahill, T.A., Gill, T.E., Reid, J.S., Gearhart, E.A., and Gillette, D.A., 1996. Saltating particles, playa crusts and dust aerosols at Owens (dry) Lake, California. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 21: 621- 639.
Gill, T.E. and Cahill, T.A., 1992. Drying saline lake beds: a regionally-significant PM10 source. In: Chow, J.C., and Ono, D.M., eds., PM10 Standards And Nontraditional Particulate Source Controls. Air & Waste Management Association Transactions Series 22: 440-454.

CH2M Hill contractor/prime engineer phases 1-6.

Lots of links to their work if you google ‘owens lake ch2m hill’, but nothing on their website about owens lake… hmm wonder why, or why not?

Ecosystem Sciences

Ecosystem Sciences was been working since 1993 to develop and implement restoration plans for the Owens River and the Owens Valley from Mono Lake to Owens Lake, some 250 miles of river and over 350,000 acres valley watershed. The city of Los Angeles diverted surface and groundwater from the Owens River Valley in the 1930’s through an extensive aqueduct system. This resulted in the dewatering of the lower Owens River for over 60 miles and attenuated reductions in groundwater, riparian, and wetland habitat, as well as created losses in fish, wildlife, and other natural resource values throughout the watershed.

Whitehorse Associates – Biologists-

Wetland vegetation type inventory, Owens Delta, California. 2000. Conducted a very detailed inventory of wetland vegetation types for about 7,335 acres at the inlet to Owens Lake. Conducted for CH2MHILL, Los Angeles, CA.
Wetland vegetation associated with springs in Owens Valley, California. 1999. Mapped vegetation in the vicinities of over 100 springs in Owens Valley. Conducted for Ecosystems Sciences, Boise, ID.

Air Sciences Inc: monitoring air quality

Research design and review; evaluation of dust emission mechanisms and mitigation measures; dust source area identification and mapping; emission rate characterization; dispersion modeling; statistical analysis of data; regulatory review; monitoring system design, installation, and operation; report preparation; expert testimony; and agency negotiations on technical matters contained in the SIP.

Jones & Stokes (Irvine) – cultural resources team archeology
949/260-1080 report published in 2002

PRBO (point rayes bird observatory)
Snowy plover recovery monitoring and protection- biologists

White Mountain Research Station, University of California
Don Sada, Aquatic Ecologist,

S & S Seeds (Albright Seeds),

Saltgrass (Distichlis spicada) was determined best for the dust control plan, and in 2000, seed was collected around the lake bed and aqueduct. 50 acres of saltgrass seed farms were established in the Owens Valley and at S&S Seeds’ test plots in Los Alamos.

By cultivating Owens Valley saltgrass, S&S teamed with Earthworks Construction & Design habitat consultant Margot Griswold and CH2M Hill project design engineers to assist the DWP in its efforts to turn Owens Lake into an area safe for humankind.

Earthworks Construction & Design (Margot Griswold)

Vineyard Water Systems – the water reuse/filtration system out on the playa (now DBA Sonora Pacific Group)

Phase 7 (in progress 2010)

Camp, Dresser and McKee

Owens Lake Dust Mitigation Phase VII Design. For the Los Angeles
Department of Water & Power, Mr. Boyd is currently overseeing the Phase VII design of shallow flooding and moat and row dust mitigation measures as leader of the CDM Technical Review Committee for this project. He is providing technical guidance to the design team and oversight.

Bernard Construction

Barnard’s dust mitigation project on the dry lakebed at Southern California’s Owens Lake continued at a good pace this fall. On this Phase 7 project for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, we are mass grading, fusing and installing lateral irrigation
piping, and performing concrete work. In August, we met our project’s intermediate milestone. Crews finished the roads and berms in October; we will wrap up the laterals by year’s end. Work
on above-ground mechanical turnout piping continues through December, then leaving only the electrical, SCADA control, start-up and testing items. The extreme heat of summer at this remote location has now been replaced by rising water tables. And, in early October we experienced over 200 earthquakes near the office, the largest registering 5.2 on the Richter scale. In addition to the LADWP, we’re working with CDM (engineer) and subcontractors ESC on electrical; Double E Construction in concrete work; G&J and Archer trucking enterprises in hauling riprap and embankment material; Kleinfelder in QC testing; and Walker River Construction in surveying.

LEE & RO

Owens Lake Dust Control Program, Shallow Flood Area Electrical Distribution System Design, Department of Water And Power, City of Los Angeles
As Principal Subconsultant to CDM, LEE & RO is responsible for the electrical distribution system design for five Moat Row areas of the $200 million Dust Control Program projects undertaken by LADWP. The LEE & RO scope of work includes electrical distribution systems, including both the North and South Sand Sheet 4,800 volt and 480 volt systems supporting existing and new dust control facilities. The design scope includes single line diagrams, panel board schedules, site plans/turnouts, wiring plans and details, pipe heat tracing, and miscellaneous electrical details. The project construction is scheduled to be complete in summer of 2010.

Sapphos Environmental: prepared environmental compliance reports

Kleinfelder East, Inc.

by Barry Lehrman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.