Owens Lake near Olancha Dunes, California

Owens Lake near Olancha Dunes, California, a photo by G. O'Graffer on Flickr.

This photograph is not mine; it comes from an academic mentor. It is a very powerful image to me, personally.


Via Flickr:
The above image is all about a major trade off.

In exchange for the survival and growth of Los Angeles -- North America’s second-largest metropolis -- the place that you see here had to be drained dry.

The Owens Valley is located at the site of what was once a major lake that had formed at the end of the last ice age. As the glaciers were exhausted and as North America’s climate changed over the following millennia, much of that lake’s water gradually dwindled or disappeared.

Located between the Sierra Nevada and the Inyo Mountains in eastern California, the Owens Valley is a desert region due to what is known as “the rainshadow effect.” The winter storm systems which provide the state most of its annual precipitation generally move across the state from west to east. As they progress up the western slopes of the Sierras, moisture in these systems condense and precipitate out of saturated clouds. As these air parcels descend down the eastern slopes, a reverse process occurs. Whereas the western slopes and summits of the Sierra can receive snowfall measured in feet in just one storm, the eastern slopes and interior valleys may only get flurries and a nasty blast of wind.

Most of the runoff from these storms and Spring snowmelt flows westward into the San Joaquin Valley, but some makes its way eastward into the Owens River, which is fed by about 40 mountain tributaries. With no natural outlet, the Owens River empties into Owens Lake in the southern end of the valley. Since much of the water evaporates during year, Owens Lake was in recent centuries a very large, but relatively shallow pool of brackish, salty water.

Over the past century, Owens Lake has been all but eliminated by the diversion of the fresh water of its source, the Owens River. As the boomtown of Los Angeles had nearly exhausted its local supplies of surface and ground water by the late 19th century, its leaders searched for new, exotic sources of water.

The Owens River was their solution. Through a rather underhanded and controversial series of land deals in 1904-05, officials from The City of Los Angeles secured the water rights to the river from local land owners. The innovative Los Angeles Aqueduct that transported the river’s water over 220 miles to LA was completed in November 1913. The aqueduct was extended and expanded over following decades.

The water from the Owens River and other nearby sources now supply the city with about 40% of its fresh water.

This northward-looking image was taken along what used to be the southern shore of Owens Lake. The Sierras are on the left side of the image; the Inyo Mountains are to the right.