Will the Biden administration force Los Angeles to remediate Owens Lake?

[ripcord]

I always wonder this at the start of each new administration, when will a president force Los Angeles to clean up and restore the largest source of dust pollution in the country and one of California's worst natural disasters the Owen Lake. This man made disaster is a health hazard to the surrounding areas and produces huge dust clouds that affect the air quality over a large area. Los Angeles needs to be forced to build desalinization plants and make people tear up the millions of lush green lawns. The fact that this disaster has gone on for over a century is ridiculous and needs to be addressed.

[Klaralven]

1. Where are they going to get the energy to run the desalinization plants?

The large California population wouldn't exist were it not for large civil engineering projects to provide water, energy, transportation, etc. all of which have considerable environmental impact.

The aqueduct from the Colorado River is itself environmentally unsound.

[Hortensis]

2. ? " Former toxic dust bowl transformed into environmental success"

https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-owens-lake-birds-20180425-story.html

Now, in the midst of horrendous climate crisis swings, including terrible droughts, I won't be surprised if you tell me the Owens Valley is having many of the same and new, serious problems. But, the court order forcing the big actions reported in this 2018 article came down in 2001.

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California Audobon Society: Each year in spring and fall Owens Lake, at the terminus of the Owens River near Lone Pine, CA, supports hundreds of thousands of shorebirds during their annual migrations between continents. Dried by drastic diversions to bring water to the people of Los Angeles, today dust mitigation and restoration efforts have returned water, creating habitat and attracting birds to the lake once again. Designated as an Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society in 2001, it is the largest and richest wildlife area in Inyo County.

Birders Flock to 2019 Owens Lake Bird Festival

[ripcord]

3. Owens Lake is still having problems

Los Angeles is slow to give up water to the Easter Sierra area, they were supposed to allow the level of Mono Lake to rise 20' but they still have 12' to go. Los Angeles need to become more self sufficient and more responsible when it comes to water, as it stands now they are selfish and greedy. BTW that photo was taken along a very narrow area leading into the lake, this is the main lake bed.

[Hortensis]

4. :) Geographic selfishness is endemic. As for water wars,

what happened in 1913 is absolutely nothing to which is happening right now in many places around the planet and absolutely nothing to what is still to come.

This is happening in the middle of a largest-ever planetwide environmental crisis, with the means of sustaining life as we know it everywhere in question and in need of enormous adjustments. The restoration of the Owens Lake habitat got significant boost from the need to stop climate change by restoring sustainable environments.

But in any case, to suggest we've done nothing as a society is to do us a great injustice, and Democrats battling Republicans to achieve it in particular.

Bigger still, all solutions for smaller groups must be part of solutions for the larger groups they're part of if they are to work. In the same way, the Owens Valley concerns and solutions are not even slightly all about the Owens Valley.

Cronies of the Republicans refusing to stop climate change have been buying up fresh water rights for some time, with the ultimate prize in the U.S. the Great Lakes, one of the planet's greatest fresh water resources. Values guaranteed to skyrocket -- if voters don't unite to stop them.

Giant existential issues always remind me of those who were deluded into thinking 2016 was about choosing ACA v MfA, and DAMN those who lied that it was.