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Inyo County hearing draws steady public pressure to curb LADWP pumping as officials defend 2026 plan
Summary
Residents, tribal members and scientists pressed the Inyo County–Los Angeles standing committee to reduce groundwater pumping and strengthen monitoring; LADWP defended a conservative forecast‑driven pumping range and highlighted conservation work in Los Angeles.
The Inyo County–Los Angeles Standing Committee heard more than three hours of public testimony on May 2026, with dozens of speakers urging the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to reduce groundwater pumping in Owens Valley and to enter good‑faith negotiations on longstanding tribal water‑rights claims.
Brad Erickson, a recent Bishop resident, told the committee that “true sustainability in the Owens Valley has to be understood in the broadest and most integrated sense,” linking habitat health to housing, infrastructure and civic investment. Multiple tribal and community speakers described worsening dust storms, dead vegetation and cultural loss at Owens Lake and along valley streams.
LADWP staff framed the annual operations plan around runoff forecasts and the long‑term water agreement. Chad LaMaccia, LADWP water operations, reported that runoff for April 2025–March 2026 totaled about 376,000 acre‑feet (roughly 91% of normal) and that total pumping last runoff year was about 55,000 acre‑feet. LADWP’s proposed 2026 pumping range is about 54,000–81,000 acre‑feet, while available pumping capacity under on‑status wells exceeds 200,000 acre‑feet. “We put that range in there because we plan for uncertainty in runoff,” LaMaccia said, noting an unusually warm March that reduced snowpack.
Inyo County officials and many public commenters said those ranges make it difficult to forecast local impacts. Inyo County’s staff said the county recommended a lower pumping number in its comment letter (46,008 acre‑feet was the figure cited during the meeting) and asked for cooperative studies before installing or renovating deep wells. Holly Alpert, Inyo County Water Director, said the county does not agree with LADWP’s accounting of mitigation projects and that several revegetation efforts have not met their sustainability targets.
LADWP commissioners and staff repeatedly pledged ongoing collaboration on monitoring and mitigation and pointed to the utility’s conservation and recycling efforts in Los Angeles, including plans to expand recycled water capacity and turf‑replacement incentives. Commissioner Nureet Katz noted the department’s legal obligations as a city‑owned utility and emphasized the staff’s focus on balancing city supply needs with valley protections.
Public commenters urged more precise, smaller pumping proposals for well fields with chronically struggling vegetation and asked the committee to accelerate cooperative studies and monitoring upgrades. Students and tribal youth appealed for the committee to think in intergenerational terms: “This land is not empty. It is not disposable,” one student told the panel.
The committee approved administrative items including recording meetings and posting them on the Inyo County website. No formal change to the LADWP pumping range was adopted at the meeting; participants agreed instead to continue technical discussions and to pursue more detailed cooperative studies and improved consultation on mitigation metrics.
What comes next: the committee asked staff from both parties to continue technical discussions and to work on cooperative studies and mitigation accounting so that future annual plans can be informed by more granular, shared data.
