Dust Up On Owens Lake Again

The LADWP has pushed back against the shifting target of dust control on Owens Lake, precipitating another round legal battles to ensure the public health along the Eastern Sierras.

So far, the Owens Lake dust control project has reduced emissions of PM10 dust by 90% – this is agreed to by both parties the LADWP and the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District. The conflict is over who should pay for further dust mitigation efforts, most of which is on land that recent archeological research shows was not submerged before the LA Aqueduct was completed in 1913, which defines the area that was agreed to in the 1997 when the dust control project was ratified. So the question is: does the LADWP or the State Land Commission pay for controlling dust on the disputed 10 square miles?

“We have no intention of walking away from our responsibility for the dust at the dry Owens Lake bed,” Nichols said. “But the reality is that we don’t create all the dust out there, never did.”

LADWP’s appeal at the California Air Quality Board is being heard today. So stay tuned for the ruling.

via LATimes

Karen Piper on Owens Lake

Over on Places, there is a thoughtful essay on Owens Lake by english professor and Ridgecrest native,  Karen Piper, titled ‘Dreams, Dust and Birds: The Trashing of Owens Lake’ about the unfeasible proposed solar farm.

“Preliminary engineering tests show that if solar panel platforms were placed at the southern end of the nearly dry 110-square-mile Owens Lake, they would sink as much as several inches into extremely corrosive soil.” [LATimes]

Beyond offering some fresh views on the infrastructural void left by the Los Angeles Aquaduct, the editors at Places asked to use one of my photos (above)!

The post also contains one of the first pics of ‘moat and row’ in the bottom left below:

Top: Owens Lake and the Sierra Nevada. [by Satoshi Nakagawa] Bottom left: Moat and Row dust control at Owens Lake. [by Karen Piper] Bottom right: The Karen Piper’s white Kia. [by Karen Piper]

Powell’s Water-based States

Spotted on Strangemaps is a great post about John Westley Powell’s Report on the Lands of the Arid Regions of the United States, which presented an alternative to the orthogonal public land survey system dominated boundaries of the western states. Since Owens Valley is a reoccurring topic here on InfrascapeDesign, it’s rather fascinating to see Owens lake and the outlines of the Pleistocene Lake Manley that are discernible in the larger versions of the map (see below).

[map from: Freinds of the Pleistocene aka FOP]

A larger PDF of Powell’s map is here from the aqueousadvisors, who credits William deBuys’s book and the USGS annual report for the reproduction of the map. Other posts about Powell’s map on ecopolitology, & good.

OWENS LAKE Symbiosis: infrastructural ruralism

To wrap up the collective reading of my chapter, ‘Reconstructing the Void: Owens Lake’ from The Infrastructural City organized by Mammoth, here is my 2005 MLA/MArch University of Pennsylvania thesis project. #mammothbook

Thesis

What is infrastructure’s cultural role in the rural landscape?

• How to adapt static large-scale civil projects into dynamic emergent systems?
• How to adapt single use infrastructure to multiple uses?
• How to transform infrastructure into an evident contributor of place?

Definitions

RURAL: places that human activities are sufficiently present to be obvious, but with a low population; contrasted to wilderness where the traces are few and far between. [http://roadless.fs.fed.us]

SYMBIOSIS: Two or more dissimilar organisms living together in close association with one another.

PARASITISM, where one of the organisms harms the other(s),

MUTUALISM, where association is advantageous to all

and
COMMENSALISM, where association is advantageous to one organism but doesn’t affect other organism(s). [www.ucbiotech.org/glossary]

Project goals:

Design a water containment system (levees, dams, channels, and earthworks) to create a low-salinity/deeper pool in the lakebed, fed by the Owens River & mitigation.

Nearby, design structures & access network for the inhabitation and the intimate experience of the lake (observation, sleeping, eating, et cetera) that engage the landscape and visitors.

PROGRAMATIC USE:

Ephemeral habitation of the Owens Lakeshore and the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

Users:

Foreign Tourists
Fishermen
Hikers/Naturalists
Hang Gliders/Sail Planers
Cultural Heritage Tourists
Birdwatchers
Travelers

Only the Snowy Plover is accommodated within the current mitigation process. No other animal/plant has been considered.

How to make this place useable by people and other critters?

Summary

Develop an Infrastructure that has a cultural role & multiple uses
Mitigate the impact of the Los Angeles Aqueduct:

• Reclaim Owens Lake through partitioning the basin into a brackish lake and a hypersaline lake
• Tie Owens Lake and the Los Angeles Aqueduct together with a system for ephemeral habitation and occupation

______

Here is the November draft of my thesis proposal that was approved by my Committee.

The final presentation...

Design

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.

Reconstructing the Void – the lecture

As part of the #Mammothbooks reading of The Infrastructural City, I am pleased to share the reading of my chapter in my Intro to Environmental Design class at the University of Minnesota on April 27th.

The lecture audio file is ~30 minutes and has not been edited.

w15-1 owens lake v4 of the lecture’s slides – all images are credited or by Barry Lehrman.



Owens Lake & LA Aqueduct Bibliography

To enhance the collective reading of The Infrastructural City organized by Mammoth, here are the highlights of the bibliographic sources from my research into Owens Lake for ‘Reconstructing the Void: Owens Lake’ and my thesis project (circa 2005). Drop me a note if you need help locating any of these sources or find new items that need to be added. #mammothbook

Owens Valley

Bishop Visitors Center; Welcome to Bishop 2003 Press Kit. Bishop California

Center for Land Use Interpretation, ‘California’s Owens Valley’, The Lay of the Land, Summer 2004

Department of Defense; Checklist of Birds, Edwards Air Force Base, California. Department of Defense. Jamestown, ND: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Online. (Version 23JUN00)

Ewan, Rebecca Fish; A Land Between – Owens Valley, California. Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Hall, Clarence A., et al- editors; The History of Water: Eastern Sierra Nevada, Owens Valley, White-Inyo Mountains. White Mountain Research Station Symposium, Volume 4. Los Angeles: University of California, 1992.

Hoffman, Abraham; Vision Or Villainy: Origins Of The Owens Valley-Los Angeles Water Controversy. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1981.

James, Greg, Dennis Williams, et al; Green Book for the Long-term Management Plan for the Owens Valley and Inyo County. Bishop, CA: June 1990.

Gary Libecap ‘Chinatown: Transaction Costs in Water Rights Exchanges The Owens Valley Transfer to Los Angeles’, (NSF Grant 0317375). [This paper explodes the myth that Los Angeles ‘stole’ the water from the Owens Valley, and why the farmers were eager to sell.

Olson, Wilma R; Olancha Remembered. Sacramento, CA: W.R. Olson 1997

Putnam, J. & G. Smith, editors; Deepest Valley: A Guide to Owens Valley, Its Roadside and Mountain Trails– 2nd Edition. Palo Alto: Genny Smith Books/Live Oak Press, 1995.

Sharp, Robert & Allen Glazner; Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Owens Valley. Missoula Montana: Mountain Press Publishing 1997.
Timmer, Kerri L.; Troubled Water of the Sierra, Sierra Nevada Alliance

Varnelis, Kazys; Points of Interest in the Owens River Valley. Culver City, CA: Center for Land Use Interpretation, 2004.

Wood, R. Coke; The Owens Valley and the Los Angeles Water Controversy – Owens Valley as I Knew It. Stockton CA: University of the Pacific, 1973.

Writing ‘Infrastructure of the Void’

As part of my engagement with the collective reading of The Infrastructural City organized by Mammoth, I wanted to share the process and backstory about my chapter in the book – ‘Reconstructing the Void: Owens Lake’. #mammothbook

The chapter title

‘Until Los Angeles’ was my working title of the drafts from October 2006 to May 2007 . ‘Infrastructure of the Void’ was the second working title and the one I’m still the most fond of. ‘Reconstructing the Void: Owens Lake’ was coined by Kazys Varnelis in the 20070820 Owens Draft. But the chapter has a longer history worth sharing.

The Back Story

The chapter emerged from the research component from my MLA/MArch thesis, the design of an alternate dust mitigation system to restore Owens Lake and create a hybrid landscape for tourism and habitat. As a resident of LA for several years before grad school, I first visited the Owens Valley on a spur of the moment road trip on Memorial Day weekend in 1998. I looked at a map of California and pointed my car into the unknown of the Eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevadas and have been haunted by Owens Valley ever since.

Then in summer of 2004, with the intent and dream of return to California, I initially choose the Los Angeles Aqueduct as my thesis topic. Through the arduous thesis proposal/approval process, the Owens Lake Playa became my focus and site.

From the Complete Report on Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, 1916.

Unintended Ecologies

[Found this abandoned snippet of an idea while dredging through the drafts for the upcoming #mammothbook reading of The Infrastructural City. My chapter is the focus of the week of April 26th – so stay tuned! ]

Toxic site, military sites, nuclear sites, abandoned sites: fenced off and isolated from human activities have a more diverse ecosystem then surrounding developed areas – [amazing] robustness of natural systems to reclaim and rebound once [human] pressure is removed. Not all levels of toxic sites are able to support ecologies- tailings/slag/chemical lagoons [are dead zones killing all that comes into contact]. Power line easements become wildlife corridors; military reservations preserve open space (adaptation of fauna to explosions and occasional exercises); hawks nest on transmission towers and tall buildings.

Structures (dams, bridges, towers) interfere with migration and travel- collisions and barriers. Isolation and fragmentation of habitat
Urbanization of wildlife- coyotes inhabiting urban parks; rats, raccoons, pigeons, geese, possums, deer have thrived in suburban and urban areas- sewers, vacant lots, alleyways provide varied terrain, lots of hiding spaces, low traffic areas, isolation in the midst of cities. Suburban sprawl provides lots of open interstitial spaces for habitat of lawns, gardens, garbage dumps, golf courses, and airports.

Fish ladders at dams concentrate and expose the fish that are supposed to be helped to increase predators.

Dumping the Colorado River water into the [Arizona] desert has created a flourishing wetland and ‘natural reserve’ where there never was one in Mexico. EPA preserves any created wetlands even when not intentional.

Issues of restoration or mitigation [of Owens Lake]:

Fixing the lake- dust is a dangerous and unintended, so it must be reduced by engineering. Obligation of Los Angeles as the colonizing power structure is to minimize the impact of extraction. Taking the water back is wrong in that it benefits millions.

As an isolated wetland- the Owens River watershed has a wide ranging area of influence on migrating birds- potential to leverage a significant impact of increased population (stability of such a larger more complex system is ethical desirable) compared to more urbanized and settled areas where human pressures are greater. Historic role as migratory feeding zone has been diminished by reduced size of riparian zones through the flow of water and salinity levels. Pragmatic desire for increased economic generation through non-destructive (non-extractive) methods.

reading ‘the infrastructural city’ proposal

Dust control 'bubblers' on Owens Lake

Mammoth is organizing a webwide book club blogging even focused on on The Infrastructural City starting at the end of April. I will certainly join in fun for my chapter on Owens Lake. Maybe even post some of the drafts and parts that didn’t make the cut into the book.

For each of the twelve chapters, mammoth will post a piece summarizing and commenting on that chapter as a conversation starter, but we hope that a rich discussion will spiral out from that central hub, through comments, through other participating blogs (currently including dpr-barcelona, faslanyc, free association design, Nam Henderson, Andrew and Peter of the polis blog, and quiet babylon – we’ll provide links to posts at other blogs discussing each chapter as they’re posted), and into other corners of the internet (twitter, etc.). To that end, participation in this discussion — this “book club” — is open to any and all interested readers. In order to join us, all you need is a copy of The Infrastructural City, a bit of time to read along, and an interest in discussing landscape, architecture, and infrastructure.

If you’re using twitter, you can follow the conversation, announcements, and so on using the hashtag #mammothbook; you may also care to join or follow the “twub” which the folks at dpr-barcelona have been kind enough to set up for the group, and which will serve as an archive for all #mammothbook tweets.

We won’t start discussing the first chapter, “Owens Lake”, until Monday, April 26th, in order to give all interested persons an opportunity to pick up the book and start reading (and writing, if you’re so inclined) before the discussion gets started. After that, we’ll be discussing one chapter a week, taking a break on every fourth week. In the meantime, we’d love to hear from everyone who is interested in participating, in the comments of this post. If you’d like to participate, be sure to leave your email address — we’ll be sending out reminder emails a little bit in advance of each week’s discussion.

Schedule
April 26th Owens Lake <—– this is my chapter!

May 3rd Los Angeles River Watershed + The River (images)
May 10th Oil
May 17th (off)
May 24th Gravel
May 31st Traffic + The Street (images)

June 7th Telecommunications
June 14th (off)
June 21st Landscape
June 28th Mobile Phones

July 5th Property
July 12th (off)
July 19th Distribution + The Trench (images)

August 2nd Props
August 9th Introduction

…[R]ead reviews of The Infrastructural City at Places Journal, Archidose, and We Make Money Not Art.

A Solar Farm for Owens Lake

The LATimes recently published a story about a possible new use of the Owens Lake Playa – a 616 acre solar power plant. The Owens Lake Playa is a place that I care about and have dedicated a significant amount of time researching and writing about.

Owens Lake seen from Horseshoe Meadow Road

Here is the Op-Ed I submitted to the LATimes to support the project:

It is important to remember that the Owens Lake Playa is an artificial landscape created by the growth of Los Angeles. While the entire Owens Valley is a sublime landscape, it is not a pristine wilderness. As such, the Owens Valley is an ideal location for locating a large concentrating solar energy facility, especially because the transmission capacity already exists and the potential benefit of further reducing the PM10 dust emissions off the Playa.