Blog: Committee’s presentation at the State Water Board’s Mono Lake virtual public workshop
In December the Mono Lake Committee asked the State Water Board to take emergency action to deliver more water to Mono Lake due to the lake’s perilously low level. We were specifically concerned about the increasing risk of coyotes accessing the islands in Mono Lake where California gulls nest. As it turns out, Mother Nature took immediate action, surprising us all with six weeks of memorably wet weather in December and January. The wet winter means the lake will rise this year, and we recognize changed circumstances reduce the need for action before April 1. At the same time, we have all seen this movie before. After the wet winter of 2017 the lake rose multiple feet, but the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) continued its water diversions and those gains in lake level were lost in subsequent years, returning us to the crisis we are here to discuss.