User:Milton Beychok/Sandbox

(PD) Photo: U.S. EPA, Region 9
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LADWP (still the owner of most of the valley's water rights) to hammer out a plan to curtail the dust storms by re-flooding and planting salt-tolerant grasses on 29.8 square miles of the dry lake bed.

• http://www.epa.gov/region9/air/owens/

Beginning in the 2000, Los Angeles has shallow flooded or ponded 25 square miles of the lake bed in order to control massive dust pollution (Clean Air Act requirement). This has led to a substantial increase in the acreage of wetland habitat on Owens Lake. By 2010, Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power will add 9 square miles more of flooding and ponding. Owens Lake appears to be a major stop-over site for shorebirds and waterfowl in the southern California interior. Each spring and fall, brine flies on the lake support thousands of shorebirds, mainly Western and Least sandpipers, and thousands of ducks utilize the wetlands (especially the impoundments along the edges). An estimated 63,000 American Avocets stop at the lake during fall (Page and Ruhlen 2002). A wintering group of 300-400 Snow Geese winters here.

• http://iba.audubon.org/iba/viewSiteProfile.do?siteId=213&navSite=state

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• mprather@lonepinetv.com
• Andrea Jones Phone:805-772-1995

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• California Water Plan: Update 2009 Bulletin 160-09, Volume 3, Regional Reports, pdf page 32

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The Los Angeles Owens Lake Dust Control Project currently stretches across 30 of the Lake's 100 square miles. Roughly 3.5 square miles are covered with native salt grass grown on a drip system. The remaining 27 square miles are covered with ponded water or are sheet flooded. These water-based dust control methods have re-created an Owens Lake food web for birds.

Since the initiation of shallow flooding dust control measures in 2001, the lake has become a significant migratory stopover once again. During an April 2008 "Big Day" bird counting event, 49 volunteer birders observed 112 species and a total of at least 46,650 birds--including black-bellied and snowy plovers, western and least sandpipers, long-billed curlews, and thousands of California gulls, American avocets, eared grebes, small sandpipers, and ducks, respectively--at the Owens Lake.

In fall 2008, the last phase of the dust control project began, to be completed in 2010. More than nine square miles of additional ponds and sheet flooding were built.

• Owens Lake From website of the Owens Valley Committee (OVC)