Last year was notably wet, raising Mono Lake five feet—and creating a conundrum. Under rules written three decades ago, the lake’s rise over the 6,380-foot elevation threshold means that on April 1, 2024, the maximum limit on water diversions from Mono Lake increased nearly fourfold. Yet decades of evidence show that increasing water diversions will erode the wet year gains, stopping the lake from reaching the mandated healthy 6,392-foot elevation. This flaw in the water diversion rules, now obvious after 30 years of implementation, has real-world results: Mono Lake is a decade late and eight feet short of achieving the healthy lake requirement. The California State Water Resources Control Board plans to examine this problem in a future hearing.