CA State Appeals Court - LA Must Restore 62 Miles Of Owens River - LAT

[hatrack]

A state Court of Appeal panel late Wednesday gave Los Angeles a strong push to move ahead on restoring a 62-mile stretch of the Lower Owens River by upholding a court order that would ban the city from using a key aqueduct if it continues delaying the project.

The ruling in the years-long legal dispute was hailed as a victory for Owens Valley residents, environmental groups and state officials fed up with the city Department of Water and Power's failure to comply with a legal agreement to restore the once-vibrant Inyo County river. The restoration effort would be one of the largest ever attempted in the country.

"This may be the final salvo in the longest-running fight over an environmental impact report in California history," said Gordon Burns, deputy solicitor general for Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer. "Now, everybody is holding tight and hoping the city will do what it is supposed to do."

Laurens H. Silver, a lawyer for the Sierra Club, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said the Lower Owens River Project "should have been implemented four or five years ago, and is mitigation for the long-term damage that the city has done by way of its ground water pumping" from the Owens Valley. The ruling has implications for the river as well as Owens Lake, which "was almost totally dewatered by the city's exports" of water from the area, he said.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-owens28sep28,1,5308738.story?coll=la-news-environment