Inyo County water managers urge conservative pumping; Water Commission recommends returning to last year’s lower limit

The Inyo County Board of Supervisors received a workshop update April 29 on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s draft 2025–26 annual operating plan and the County Water Department’s response, with the Inyo County Water Commission urging the board to endorse a lower pumping ceiling to protect vegetation and groundwater.

Water Department staff presented data showing LADWP’s proposed pumping for the Owens Valley at about 68,000 to 88,000 acre‑feet for 2025–26, compared with LADWP’s actual pumping of 48,678 acre‑feet in 2024. Holly Alpert of the Inyo County Water Department said runoff this year is forecast at 92% of normal and snowpack at 84%, and that her office’s modeling shows the department’s recommended pumping (about 61,000 acre‑feet valley‑wide) would produce an average groundwater decline of roughly 1.3 feet valley‑wide. “We’re proposing minimal DWP pumping in all well fields but to boost Aberdeen where we took it down a bit farther,” Alpert said, explaining the department’s focus on using water for in‑valley uses rather than export.

The Water Commission, which met the evening prior, recommended a lower ceiling—returning to last year’s lower plan of 51,470 acre‑feet—and urged the board to adopt that recommendation. Terry Red Owl, speaking as a member of the public and the commission chair at the workshop, said county indicator wells showed a year‑over‑year decline of about 1.5 feet last year even though LADWP pumped less than its planned minimum. “Even with a higher runoff year last year and less pumping than what’s being proposed this year,…