Owens Valley ranchers at mercy of LA, drought

Water in the aqueduct that helped fuel Los Angeles’ growth was flowing toward the city Wednesday for the first time in six months after workers removed an earthen and concrete dam that had diverted runoff to the parched Owens Valley. With little mountain runoff due to a historic drought, water managers made the unprecedented decision to try to meet legal obligations to keep the Owens River flowing, control dust from a dry lake bed and irrigate pastures where cattle graze instead of sending water to the city. For those in the Owens Valley, who have a history of conflict with the metropolis hundreds of miles to the south, the plugged-up aqueduct brought relief to some and left others to suffer the drought’s misery. Cattleman Mark Lacey got a taste of both. In the southern end of the valley this summer where the Department of Water and Power mostly fulfilled irrigation contracts, Lacey’s cattle grazed amid an oasis as cool, clear water poured onto verdant fields framed by barbed wire. About 100 miles north, where DWP didn’t allow ranchers to take irrigation water, land Lacey leases turned dry and dusty. Lacey had to lay off some ranch hands and he trucked a third of his cattle to Nebraska and sent another third to greener pastures in Nevada and Oregon...more