Mono Lake: A Test for New Regime

Not so long ago, and with appropriate drum rolls, we predicted in this space that the old, old war over Mono Lake would soon conclude. And, pushing our luck to the max, we further predicted the winners to be the good guys.

OK, score us with two clean doubles. The Mono Lake war has turned into a rout. It now appears that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will never fulfill its dream of shriveling Mono into a mudhole so it can feed the city’s lawn sprinklers. Too many battles have been lost in too many courts.

The latest, withering defeat took place only last month when Superior Court Judge Terrence Finney ridiculed the department for coming to his court with a request to scuttle protections for the lake. As usual, the department lost, and lost big.

The war was dragging to an end, all right. But it was a war of attrition. The department, already having spent $7 million on lawyers, appeared content to keep spending our money forever because that, by God, was its job.

Now, suddenly, a bump in the road. For the first time it looks as if the department may be willing to sue for peace rather than fighting until the last, bloody soldier lies dead in his boots.

This deal in the making is described in Virginia Ellis’ story to the right of this column. There are some twists and turns but it comes down to this: The state would pony up roughly $60 million so the DWP could purchase marginal farmland in the San Joaquin Valley. That land would be retired from use and the water rights transferred to Los Angeles.

In return for its money, the state--and everyone else--gets a healthy, thriving Mono Lake.

Maybe. First you have to remember that a deal must finally be struck and the history of the DWP is the history of broken deals, of negotiations that failed.

Before the DWP gets the $60 million that will buy the land that will yield the water that will be sent to the taps in L.A., before any of that happens, the DWP must pull off one of the most difficult negotiations since the day it was founded.

It must sit down with its old adversaries, the environmentalists, and agree on terms to end the war.

Specifically, the state’s offer requires that the DWP strike a deal with the Mono Lake Committee, the outfit that has beaten them at every turn. Only in this case, of course, the “deal” amounts to an admission of defeat.

Picture a Japanese general walking onto the deck of the battleship Missouri to sign Japan’s articles of surrender. That’s the kind of deal we’re talking about. The only variable is the size of the defeat.

The Mono Lake Committee wants the lake level guaranteed at 6,386 feet above sea level. That’s high enough to keep the wildlife thriving, to keep the gulls coming back every year, to keep the coyotes off the breeding islands.

The DWP will try for something less than that. Maybe five or six feet less. The lower the level of the lake, the more water the department will be able to take for itself, and Los Angeles.

You might expect the negotiated level to fall somewhere in between. But remember, the Japanese general didn’t have much of a bargaining position, and neither does the DWP. Its only recourse, absent the deal, is returning to the courts where it will surely lose again.

This kind of deal is precisely the kind that has never gone very far at the DWP. These people take territory by whatever means necessary; they don’t give it back. They are not accustomed to losing. In their hearts, they would rather fight to the last kamikaze.

But supposedly we have a new generation of leaders at the department. Mike Gage, president of the water and power commissioners, is himself a card-carrying environmentalist. So are commissioners Dorothy Green and Mary Nichols.

They constitute a majority of the board. When Mayor Bradley appointed them a year ago, many implicit promises were made. Thus far, few of those promises have materialized.

Now, we will see whether the mayor and his people at the DWP are serious about stamping their imprimatur on the department. They have the votes, they can do what they want.

And if not now, when? If not at Mono, where?